From the Publishers Desk
Volunteers Conquer Dump Fire
In the good old days, dumps usually contained garbage and ashes (from coal stoves and furnaces). But today, dumps can contain anything from nuclear wastes to exotic chemicals. And on occasion they blow up and burn, as witness the one in Elizabeth, N.J., which blotted out parts of New York City and threatened the health of thousands of citizens in the metropolitan area.
The old dump fires were mostly smelly nuisances but not the latest ones, like the one in Arkansas that you can read about in this issue.
The Gassville Volunteer Fire Department was not aware of the possibilities when it responded to this dump fire and expended its booster tank on the fire with absolutely no effect, turned the dump over to the Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology, and returned to quarters. What happened after that was quite a tale.
Seems like the fire kept burning for about 11 days and, what intrigued us, involved three state agencies, the state fire academy, the National Guard and 11 fire departments—all for what started out as a 1-acre dump fire (it eventually spread to 12).
What didn’t surprise us was the dedication, energy and efficiency of the involved volunteer fire departments who hung in there for 11 days until the fire was conquered. But it’s hard to believe that some 456,000 gallons of water were trucked in in the early operations.
As our editor points out in his editorial this month, things aren’t what they used to be. Forty or more years ago, fire fighters didn’t have to take pH factors into consideration as they did in Gassville, nor did they have to provide holding ponds for the runoff from their streams. One thing they did not have for sure was the 5-inch hose to relay water.
All in all, the article on the dump fire makes interesting reading. With concern about waste removal and its accumulation, we are sure you’ll be reading more of the same in future issues of Fire Engineering.
