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REDUCING THE RISK OF LANDFILL FIRE
Pre
Planning
Having a comprehensive landfill fire pre-plan in place is an important
part of landfill fire risk reduction. The elements of a
good pre-plan include:
- Site
orientation information (up to date maps, air photos)
- List
of fire fighting resources (on-site and fire departments)
- A
defined Incident Command Structure with all group leaders identified
- Fire
Response Actions and Responsibilities of all group leaders defined.
- An
evacuation plan in place.
- Strategies
for fighting Level 1 to Level 4 fires defined.
- A
list of personal protective equipment
- A
well thought out communication system
- An
up-to-date emergency contact list.
Fire Prevention
Training
More important than the pre-plan is to ensure that landfill staff
and fire fighters responding to a landfill fire incident are thoroughly
trained to deal with fire emergencies. Key training topics
include:
- recognizing
a fire early
- raising
the alarm
- safety
in the fire zone and accountability
- respiratory
protection
- fire
fighting methods
Based on training programs organized for Metro Waste in Des Moines,
Iowa, the Israel Ministry of Environment and the City of Calgary,
LandfillFire Control Inc. is working with the B.C. Pacific Chapter
of SWANA, Ecowaste Industries and the City of Vancouver to organize
a one day landfill fire workshop on April 19th, 2002.
     
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