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Fire breaks out in two Sharjah waste dumps

SHARJAH — Two incidents of fires in waste and garbage dumps were reported from Sharjah yesterday.

In the first case, a fire broke out at 11am yesterday in the municipality’s land fill of commercial and industrial waste in Sharjah Industrial Area No 6.

“The landfill contained domestic and industrial waste, plastics and car tyres, as well as other types of factory garbage and wastes,” said a Civil Defence official.

Officials from Civil Defence said when their team reached the scene, the fire was spreading fast. They immediately asked the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) to disconnect power supply to all establishments in the vicinity. After a long struggle, the fire was brought under control.

Because of thick clouds of smoke as a result of the fire, the paramedic unit of Sharjah Police was also alerted. However, no casualties were reported.

In the second incident, the fire broke out on Friday night in an industrial waste dump area at a fibre glass factory in Sharjah’s Hamriya free zone. However, no casualties were reported.

The dump contained plastic, chemical material and paper. The Sharjah Civil Defence team, assisted by Civil Defence personnel from Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, succeeded in bringing the fire under control in an impressive display of fire-fighting skills.

Abdullah Al Naboudah, head of the Waste Section of Sharjah Municipality told Khaleej Times that the fires could have been caused by a reaction between some inflammable chemicals and some solid waste material as a result of the summer heat.

He also said that fires at landfills and garbage dumps cannot be ignored as they are a potent source of environmental pollution apart from the danger of their spreading to residential and industrial areas in the vicinity.

“But the best solution for the waste problem is to make an arrangement with some companies or factories which specialise in recycling garbage and have a proper landfill to store waste materials for recycling every week instead of keeping them in heaps for years,” he added.