Hot, dry weather contributes to fires at dump. Is Horry County prepared to handle more?
When a portion of the Horry County landfill caught fire over the weekend, it was the second time in as many months that flames sprouted from the mounds of dirt and waste along Highway 90, outside of Conway.
And with meteorologists expecting the county to continue experiencing hot, dry weather, at least through the weekend, the conditions could exist for more fires at the landfill in coming days and weeks. Unless the county gets a significant amount of rain soon — at least a few tenths of an inch — those conditions could persist, experts warn.
Though fires at Horry County’s landfill don’t typically grow too large to contain or spread, the hot and dry weather raises the concern that larger fires, or more frequent fires, could spark there, and possibly spread smoke or other harmful substances to the surrounding community along Highway 90.
Added to the concern is the fact that fighting landfill fires takes a much different process and practice than house or building fires. Rather than spraying gallons of water on the base of the flames, as fire crews may do for a home, those responding to a landfill fire have to attempt to dig it out and then pile dirt on top of the fire to snuff it out. When Horry County Fire Rescue crews responded to Saturday’s fire, they brought along a traditional fire truck to spray water on the blaze, something that raised the concerns of the officials in charge of the landfill.
“It was their first time evidently,” said Bo Ives, the chairman of the Solid Waste Authority’s board of directors, which oversees operations of the landfill. “We’ve worked on this a number of times but they have turnover.”
The first recent fire at the landfill occurred on April 15, in the construction and demolition waste portion of the landfill. That fire was small, Solid Waste Authority officials reported, and was likely caused by something brought in on a load of waste.
Then, on Saturday, a larger fire broke out. That fire was larger, covering approximately 2,500 square feet of a waste mound. Officials suspect that fire sparked because of a particularly hot piece of material in a waste load, or because of the lack of rain, or a combination of those factors.
Fires at landfills, generally, are significant because those mounds of waste, as garbage, food and other products decompose, produce copious amounts of methane, which can cause a fire to burn hotter and faster than it might in a different location. Landfills are also full of flammable materials, meaning there’s plenty of fuel for a fire if one does happen to get out of control.
And to put out a landfill fire, crews shouldn’t use water. Doing so could force the fire deeper into a mound of waste, or just create a lot of steam, neither of which help put the fire out. Rather, crews should work to suffocate the fire of its oxygen by piling dirt on top of it.
“Because it’s been so dry for so long…it’s prone for a fire at this time, so you need to be en garde which we are,” Ives said. “We pretty much have a requirement to take on all materials that come into our landfill, we don’t have a choice of what we can receive so we get good and bad stuff in our landfill. If the right materials are there it can be almost impossible to put it out.”
Danny Knight, the director of the Solid Waste Authority, said he was less concerned about how the county fire crews responded on Saturday, and about the authority’s ability to manage fires, but said he’d schedule a meeting with county officials to ensure everyone is on the same page to handle any future fires.
“I plan to have a meeting with them and let’s make sure everyone is comfortable,” Knight said Wednesday. “We’re now taking extra precautions. It’s dry. You never know if (a spark) is in a load, you never know if it’s a hot load or if something in the landfill is getting hot.”
According to an incident report from Horry County Fire Rescue, fire crews arrived at the landfill Saturday evening and set up to extinguish the fire with water before being told that Solid Waste Authority staff would use sand instead to put out the fire.
One fire engine, the report stated, “placed a three-inch supply line and began to deploy the deck gun to extinguish the fire.” That engine then “requested additional tankers for water supply,” according to the report. Then, Solid Waste Authority personnel arrived and told county firefighters they could handle the scene.
“The site supervisor advised the (fire department) that we could pack up and clear. Solid Waste deployed a bulldozer and sand trucks to extinguish the fire.”
Anthony Casey, a spokesperson for Horry County Fire Rescue, said the way crews responded to Saturday’s fire demonstrated the “fantastic working relationship with our partners at the Solid Waste Authority.”
“As was demonstrated on this particular call, communication and the deployment of resources between our two organizations was great, and we appreciate their planning and response to emergencies at their facility if and when it’s needed.” Casey said in an email.
Still, Ives said, the weather Horry County has been experiencing could make it all the more important that county fire crews and Solid Waste Authority staff are able to work together to put out any future landfill fires.
“The concern is that the fire could get out of control,” Ives said, noting that delays in noticing and responding to a fire at the landfill would be worrisome. “Time is the concern — how soon can we get mobilized? The longer the time then it’s allowed to become a big deal.”
And, Ives said, he’s “very concerned” about the possibility of future landfill fires, “especially if this drought continues.”
According to the National Weather Service, Horry County and parts of Southeastern North Carolina are currently experiencing a light drought, and those hot, dry conditions could persist through the weekend. Some light rain is expected on Saturday, according to forecasts, but Steven Pfaff, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service based in Wilmington, N.C., said it might not be enough.
The rain is expected in the “Saturday night time frame into Sunday but the chance is coming down, and it could be dry for some weather after that,” Pfaff said. “We need a few tenths (of an inch of rain) to start turning the corner here.”
That Horry County is experiencing a drought now is significant, in part because a lack of rain now could affect growing crops and because of rain patterns so far this year. This region of the Southeast experienced a very wet winter, Pfaff said, and logged much of its annual rainfall before the weather started warming up. Now, he said, the weather is warmer and the skies are dry.
“If you look at the big picture we’re in a surplus (of rain for the year),” Pfaff said. “We went from that to flipping the switch to now we’re in a moderate drought. We went from boom to bust with rainfall.”
Taken together, that means the county is currently at higher risk for fires. Because of that, the county currently has a ban on backyard burning in place to cut down on the possibility of out-of-control fires.
And at the landfill, that means officials are watching closely to ensure large fires don’t break out.
“We know what needs to be done, we have people who have faced fires on the landfill for years,” Knight said. “This time I think its the nature of the climate and what we’re going through. We’ve got it covered.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 3:46 PM.
