CORNWALL – A city spokeswoman says it won’t be investigating any further into what possibly started a massive weekend landfill fire.
It started around 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon in a pit on the southeast corner of the property at 2590 Cornwall Centre Road and kept firefighters on the scene most of the night.
Police had to shut down a section of Vincent Massey Drive for a brief period after giant plumes of smoke drifted across the highway, cutting visibility to near zero.
Cornwall Solid Waste Supervisor Nicole Robertson toured the facility a day after the fire.
She tells Cornwall Newswatch, despite the giant flames, none of the infrastructure was damaged.
The landfill site has a system of interconnected gas utilization wells where the fire took place as well as a leachate collection system, which was right in the center of the flames.
Roberton says the last of the hot spots were put out by 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
While they don’t know the cause, Robertson speculates that something combustible or ashes could have been dumped in the pit.
The area is open to trucks with trailers to dump a load after going through the weigh scales. Landfill operators also periodically dump the public collection bins located near the entrance to the dump.
The landfill was closed to the public for nearly five hours before the fire started.
Robertson, who has been in the solid waste supervisor position for five years, can’t recall if there’s ever been a fire before Saturday at the Cornwall Centre Road landfill.
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