Smoke found to be issuing from area near top of landfill following 7.30 a.m. report this morning.

·         Small amounts of smoke may be visible at times.

·         There is no immediate risk to public safety.

GRAND CAYMAN (GIS) – Department of Environmental Health (DEH) and Cayman Island Fire Service (CIFS) crews are working to resolve an incident at the George Town Landfill Sunday morning (22 September 2019).

DEH’s attendant at the landfill gate detected the fire at 7.30 a.m. today. Fire crews arrived on the scene shortly afterwards and found some smoke issuing from an area near the top of the landfill.

Environment health and fire crews are using mechanical excavators, pumps and hose to damp down the area prior to removing hot materials from the top to be spread for wetting and cooling. In addition fire officers are utilising water monitors, which are aimable, controllable, high capacity water jets, as well as thermal imaging cameras to detect hot spots.

Although small amounts of smoke may be visible during this process there is no immediate risk to public safety at this time says DEH Assistant Director Michael Haworth.

Both DEH and the Fire Service will remain on site as long as necessary to resolve the incident and minimise chances of reignition.

Chief Fire Officer Paul Walker notes that the fire service is reallocating resources to ensure that its ability to respond to any other occurrences across Grand Cayman is unaffected during this incident.

Members of the public are advised that the fire may affect operations at the landfill gate, as pending further excavation and damping down of the site, containers may be delayed in clearance and backed up.

The Ministry Health, Environment, Culture and Housing and the Department of Environmental Health apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Officials add that today’s incident is located in an area of the landfill unrelated to last week’s incident.