“Nearly 465 water tankers were sent to the spot since the fire broke
out on April 7. Most of these tankers had the capacity to carry 10,000
litres of water, while some could carry 4,000 litres,” said Pramod
Yadav, official on special duty (garbage department).

Yadav said on an average, 10 tankers were deployed at the spot per day.

A huge fire had broken out at the garbage depot on April 7. After it
was controlled on April 8, it broke out again on April 9. The fire was
finally brought under control on April 15.

The villagers had
complained of irritation in the eyes and difficulty in breathing as the
smoke pervaded the area surrounding both villages. The smoke was also a
nuisance to people using the roads adjacent to the dump.

“The
generation of methane gas and heat causes fires regularly in such areas.
Since the garbage depot is prone to fire accidents, we have deployed
round-the-clock firefighting vehicles near the site. All these vehicles
were used to douse the fire. More water tankers were sought from nearby
villages as well as from the civic body,” added Yadav.

He said
that the temperature around the site was above 40 degrees and must have
caused the fire. The wind speed was very fast, which spread the fire
rapidly and controlling it had become a tough task.

Jadhav
added that the garbage processing plant at the depot has been shut for
technical work. This has led to an increase in the pile-up of garbage.
The villagers, who have been protesting for years against the very
presence of the garbage dump, have blocked garbage trucks from entering
the depot claming that PMC failed to put out the fire.

The city
generates about 1,400 to 1,600 metric tonne of garbage every day. The
plant at the garbage depot processes 700 MT. The civic body stopped open
dumping of the city’s garbage at Uruli depot over two and a half years
ago.