By Rachel Southmayd and Bristow Marchant
The Herald
LOCKHART, S.C. — The Chester County landfill fire — once believed to be nearly contained — turned into a “nightmare” in its fifth day, emergency officials said Thursday.
The Bennett Landfill site near Lockhart, off S.C. 49 in western Chester County, has been burning since Sunday afternoon. Debris at the site is about 50 feet high and 40 feet deep.
Jonathan Revis, county deputy director of emergency management, said Wednesday afternoon officials were “optimistic that the fire could be out completely by (Thursday) morning.”
But overnight, crews discovered a tunnel within the landfill that could have been burning for “two weeks or two years,” Emergency Management Director Eddie Murphy said Thursday morning. The fire in that tunnel made its way to the surface Sunday, which is when the smoke was first spotted.
Now, Murphy said, he has no idea when the fire might be under control.
“You could have melted steel in there,” he said of the heat coming from the tunnel.
Ed Darby, county emergency planner, said the burning debris was inside a cavernous area within a mound of landfill debris.
“It’s not a wide area, but we don’t know how deep the cavern goes,” Darby said.
Excavation equipment was being brought in to help unearth and extinguish the debris. Making sure the fire is fully out is imperative, officials say.
“There have been landfill fires that have burned for months,” Darby said. “We don’t want that to happen here, because the town of Lockhart is very close, and we have to continue to monitor the air quality as we’re fighting the fire, because we don’t know what it’s emitting.”
Chester County firefighters began attacking the fire on their own Sunday, but as the fire burned on, crews were called in from surrounding counties — Fairfield, Lancaster, Union and York — to help contain it. Agents from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are monitoring the air quality around the landfill for any contaminants.
At least 30 crew members are working the fire at all times, Murphy said, with a constant intake of water tankers. Overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning alone, more than 200,000 gallons of water were used to try to contain the blaze.
By midday Thursday, firefighter Charlie F. Ward had driven the 3,000-gallon tanker from McConnells Fire Department down to the nearby Broad River to refill five times already, after driving the tanker “all day long” on Wednesday. A volunteer, Ward is missing work as a security guard at Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill to help fight the landfill fire.
“They asked me to work today, but I said we had too much going on,” Ward said.
Ward’s fellow McConnells volunteer, firefighter Donald Turney, also has another full-time job at the Wal-Mart on Dave Lyle Boulevard in Rock Hill, but said he would have had the day off even if he wasn’t on tanker duty.
“Today’s my 23rd birthday,” Turney said.
Since Sunday, crews have formed a staging area in the parking lot of the Broad River Mart on Pinckney Road. Owner Gus Poulos said the store has been able to stay open throughout the ordeal.
“It’s big business,” Poulos said, “They buy diesel and fuel every day.”
That changed Thursday, however, when a bulldozer moving through a wooded area knocked out a guide wire and left the store without electricity, shutting down its pumps in the process. Poulos lives nearby and said he could see and smell the fire from his home, but said he isn’t concerned about being so close to the action.
“The air’s not bad here,” he said, “but if the air gets contaminated, they’re going to have to close the whole town.”
People in the area need to be cautious on the roads, Murphy said, because tanker trucks are coming and going from the landfill.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is assisting with the cleanup, but Chester County is going to take a major financial hit because of the cost of this operation, Murphy said. Agencies from across the state are sending equipment and firefighters to assist local crews.
“We’re just trying to get it handled,” Murphy said.
Agencies involved in the operation are actively seeking assistance from the community, particularly in feeding crew members. On Thursday, firefighters were eating discounted meals from the Bojangles’ in Union in between shifts battling the blaze.
“They’ve been feeding us breakfast, lunch and supper,” said Capt. Drew Harvey with the Kelly Kelton Fire Department in Union County.
Harvey and the other firefighters have alternated between fighting the fire inside the landfill and handling the mass of fire equipment back in the staging area.
“Somebody’s been here 24/7,” he said.
___
(c)2014 The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)
Distributed by MCT Information Services