The fire at the Belize City dump has been raging for 5 days now and residents on the city's south side are still complaining that they are being smothered by the smoke. But there are no easy solutions and no quick fixes for a problem that has been at least a decade in the making. But those firemen who've been given an operational and a political directive to fix it and fast, have to try and come up with that magic juice that will make all the smoke go away. We went to the frontline of their battle today to gauge the progress Keith Swift couldn't find his gas mask quickly enough.
Keith SwiftReporting,
By now we've all seen the political grandstanding over the fire that's been burning here at the Belize City dump for the past 5 days. Well what you've seen is very different from the reality here on the ground. This is the Belize's 'ground zero' and let me tell you, this is no place for a slick photo opportunity, the ground beneath me is scalding hot and the men behind me are dead tired.
But more than just tired, they have to endure 8 hour shifts working in the impenetrable, unending smoke against this massive fire spanning thousands of acres and burning beneath this almost endless mish-mash of waste. It is a firefight that looks to have no end, but it does; Ted Smith says they have a strategy.
Ted Smith, Assistant Fire Chief
"We're dealing with the garbage dump. Its difficult but we're trying our
very best to extinguish that fire. The fire burns very deep below and then comes up on the top so there is a lot of heat even when you knock off the top section; when you extinguish one section there is still that heat coming up."
Keith Swift,
Concerned about the safety of your men in relation to toxins in the smoke?
Ted Smith,
"Yes I am very much concerned. This is why we try to work up the wind; based on the wind direction we change our tactic. Right now we are working off the east front and working our way along the eastern going all along. Yesterday was very difficult because the wind direction hampered the fire fighting; most of the day we couldn't get anything done."
Keith Swift,
What is the role of the BDF?
Ted Smith,
"They are assisting us. They are right behind the fire fighters assisting us in the physical moving and hauling of hoses and some of them even go on the branch because we did give them a crash course."
Today we tracked across the smoking ground, all the while feeling the heat
under our heels to go to the frontline. The yellow hose is the only guide because from where we were, we couldn't see the team through the smoke. The terrain has all appearances of a barren, thermonuclear landscape, where waste is piled a dozen feet high, and the scorched carpet of mush and rubbish is punctuated only by these massive sinkholes.
These soldiers just coming off a break to go on another shift will carry on the fight until this afternoon, when the soldiers encamped at the entrance will go in again.
At night, these lights are used, and the fight continues. As one of the fighters told us, this task has no days, it just continues. Smith however is adamant it is a firefight they are determined to win.
Ted Smith,
"Jungle fires are difficult fires. Eventually we will win. I can't give you an exact time period but we will do our best. It is a tedious task, its slow, it has a slow pace based on the extent of it at this moment but at the end of the day we will extinguish that fire."
And doing that is a grim and unpleasant job, but Smith somebody has got to do it.
Ted Smith,
"I am concerned about the health of my men and we do everything possible to ensure that we maintain a certain level of health. Firefighting involves
smoke and you can't be a firefighter and think you won't get to breathe a little bit of smoke. We try to minimize with the equipment and clothing that we provide, the protection. One of our guys yesterday had more exposure than he should have. He is not working right now, he was taken to the hospital, received some treatment, and given a couple days off. That is why we try to use the best strategy and tactics in how we operate. Yes we are human Keith and can't continue to breathe in all that smoke but we must do our very best. This is our job. We choose this job so we must do our very best to contain that fire before the wind shifts back and brings it back into the city."
And as I walked out of the fog of this war I didn't for a second envy these soldiers and firefighters, doing time in this thankless job in what must be one of the top ten worst places to do a day's work.
Smith says that they may switch to two 12 hour shifts to maximize the use of manpower. The only long term solution is to move the dump - which the political decision makers say should happen within the next three months when it will go to mile 22.
