Pietermaritzburg on the brink of being declared a state of disaster

Pietermaritzburg has been in national spotlight since Monday amidst an unfolding public health and environmental catastrophe at the central dump where teams of fire fighters have been battling to contain a raging inferno.

The blaze has spewed tons of toxic smoke into the atmosphere suffocating suburbs across the capital.

“A technical Joint Command Committee was convened at 2pm today to receive reports and agree on a way forward on various elements of the operation, including considering the possibility of declaring a local state of disaster” said Duma.

The city said today that fire fighters have managed to contain the blaze but that smokey conditions will persist over the next few days.

“The large fires have been contained. The large area of the site on the working face is, however, still smoldering due to the depth of the fire in the uncompacted waste. This accounts for the smoke that is still lingering. The smoke will linger for the next few days,” said Msunduzi Fire command centre chief.

“The waste pickers remain the main risk as they have returned to the site in their numbers this morning. Yesterday afternoon, they engaged in confrontational action with security. SAPS has been mobilised to assist with the handling of the crowds currently at the landfill,” said Duma.

The following resources have been mobilised and deployed at the landfill:

• There are fire engines two from Msunduzi, one from eThekwini, two from uMgungundlovu, and one from Working on Fire.
• There are ten firefighters from Msunduzi, 12 from Umgugundlovu, ten from Working on Fire and seven from eThekweni. The same number of fire fighters are on rest in order to relieve the working teams later.
• There are currently five water tankers on site. Msunduzi has contracted a private irrigation company to connect pipes to pump water directly from the Msundusi River to water tankers to reduce the distance from where they currently fetch water.
• There is one excavator and two bulldozers, and eThekwini has agreed to haul three dozers to the site to augment the available equipment which is used to turn the smouldering waste to make it easier to douse with water.

The option of bombing the working face with water from a helicopter has been explored but fire experts on site have advised against it.

They are of the view that the water will runoff and there will be minimal impact on extinguishing the smouldering heaps of waste. It could also cause mud which will make it difficult to operate the trucks and other equipment on site.