VANCOUVER LANDFILL DEMOLITION FIRE 

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

Based on the experience developed on the Vancouver Landfill Fire a number of conclusions can be reached with respect to prevention of fires in demolition materials and effective fire control methods: 

Fire Prevention:

-     intermediate cover material must be installed on all exposed slopes with particular attention given to windward slopes;

-     fill plans incorporating vertical fire breaks need to be developed for demolition areas to limit the potential extent of any fires; and

-     due to their composition and porosity woodwaste demolition materials pose an extreme fire risk and must be handled with equal or more caution than municipal solid waste 

Fire Fighting and Monitoring:

-     sufficient equipment resources and personnel must be available to immediately respond to any landfill fire;

-     the approach of cooling down an underground fire with large volumes of water proved effective in this situation and is expected to work equally well on other demolition material fires provided the hot zone is shallow (<10 m);

-     cutting off the oxygen supply to the burn zone is an effective way to fight fire in demolition materials;

-     an effective monitoring program is essential in determining the extent of an underground fire and to monitor progress in fighting the fire;

-     subsurface carbon monoxide levels in conjunction with methane and oxygen levels provide critical data in determining the extent of a fire as well as evaluating the potential for a fire to develop; and

-     to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion, operators should strive to establish anaerobic conditions within demolition landfills whereby oxygen is totally excluded, with methane and carbon dioxide being the predominant gases.

   End of Article