By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, residents living near the Eagle Valley Landfill off Silverbell Rd. might have smelled something rather stinky outside.
About a 75- by75 land area of garbage had caught fire, most likely due to spontaneous combustion, Fire Chief Robert Smith said.
At around 4:30 a.m., three Orion Township fire trucks that were on their way to a condo fire in Auburn Hills were redirected to the Waste Management landfill for the fire someone had reported seeing from Lapeer Rd.
‘That’s my third one (landfill fire) in 28 years. It’s not common,? Smith said. ‘Modern landfills are very conscientious of what they’re doing and environmentally safe as they can be.?
Fire trucks contained the fire until Eagle Valley Landfill representatives could arrive to the scene and help remove the giant tarp covering the burning garbage.
Smith said the tarp made the fire particularly challenging because the fire was underneath it and the tarp was too large to remove. Eagle Valley employees used a bulldozer to pull the tarp off the fire.
Another challenge was the location of the fire, on top of a large hill.
Because the closest hydrant was at the entrance of the landfill, Orion firefighters had to do a water shuttle. After filling up at the hydrant, they drove up the hill and sprayed the fire until Eagle Valley arrived.
The goal was to keep the fire from spreading.
‘There were some complaints about the smell and concerns about toxicity, but we were monitoring it the whole time. It stunk. It’s garbage, but there was never any toxic release,? Smith said.
Representatives from Eagle Valley said that it had been four or five days since new garbage was added to the section that was on fire.
Smith said the fire would have never gone beyond the dump, because of the dirt base. The fire team also tried to minimize smoke for the residents.
Other than the tarp which was burned, there was no other damage.