The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Manitoba Conversation is monitoring a fire that for many weeks has been smouldering underground at the Flin Flon Municipal Landfill. Over the summer, flames engulfed a portion of the household garbage. Staff had the section covered with fill and had hoped that would be the end of the fire. But the flames survived the burial and now occasionally flare up, producing clouds of smoke that have prompted complaints from some residents in nearby Channing. Doreen Murray of the Flin Flon and District Environment Council, which operates the landfill, said staff continue to have the fire covered with fill whenever there is a flare up. Murray hopes the fire will eventually burn out, but added that if it is still alive in the spring, workers will dig up the portion of land and directly extinguish the flames. "We're asking that Channing residents bear with us," said Murray. "We're aware of the problem. We're not talking about a big fire here, but it's just enough to be a pain in the neck. If it does become a serious problem, we'll certainly have to address it sooner or later, but right now, there's no threat to anybody other than the nuisance of the smoke." Murray is not certain how the fire began over the summer, assuming that an object in the garbage combusted in the heat. Manitoba Conservation received a complaint about the smoke yesterday and is keeping an eye on the situation. "I don't think there's much danger of the fire spreading very far or very fast because it's underground and it's not getting much air," said Joel Nilsen, environmental engineer. "There is a potential for it to smoulder for some time." Since the fire involves household waste, Nilsen has notified the province's Medical Officer of Health and Emergency Response Group in Winnipeg as a precautionary measure.
