VANCOUVER LANDFILL DEMOLITION FIRE 

Fighting The Fire

The fire was discovered at approximately 2:00 p.m. on October 18. Although no flames were visible when the fire was discovered, an area of approximately 50 square metres had settled approximately 60 cm and smoke was venting from the area. Steam vents were previously noted throughout the 700 by 80 metre demolition area.  With the discovery of the fire, there was concern that the steam vents indicated fires were also present in other areas of the demolition cell since various authors have reported that landfill fires may exist without any external evidence of the fire (Ettala et al., 1996; Carpenter, 1996, Herold, 1999)

Within two hours of the discovery of the fire, Poschner Construction (the City’s onsite contractor) was delivering water to the fire in three off-road dump trucks with delivery capabilities of 20,000 litres per load. The trucks are normally used at the landfill to deliver cover material.  In the event of a fire the trucks can be quickly outfitted with a tailgate to allow them to haul water. Water is supplied to the trucks via an overhead delivery system feeding from an on-site dredge pond. The trucks can be filled in about 3 minutes. 

Because the demolition material is essentially free draining and the surface area where the fire was located was essentially flat, large quantities of water could be applied without reducing trafficability in the area or creating a risk of slope failure. By the end of the evening of the 18^th, approximately 800,000 litres of water had been delivered to the area of the fire.  

Off-road dump trucks continued to deliver water to the area of the fire and other hot spots within the demolition area on the 19^th and 20^th.  By the end of the 20^th, the water trucks had delivered a total of more than 2,000,000 litres of water. 

2 .  Poschner Construction Off Road Truck,
                20,000 litres per load.