A massive fire broke out at a solid waste processing unit Chikkanagamangala village near Anekal on the city’s outskirts early on Sunday. Panic gripped residents of the village and those in the neighbouring villages as thick pungent smoke engulfed the area early in the morning. Many people had difficulty in breathing.
The fire, sighted first by workers in the unit at around 3.30 a.m., spread to the entire garbage stock of over 600 tonnes, sources said, and added that 10 fire tenders could not bring the blaze under control. “The fire is expected to rage for another two to three days,” sources said. The unit has a capacity to process 500 tonnes of garbage daily.
The incident comes over a month after a massive fire at Kannahalli waste processing plant resulted in a loss of over Rs. 9.5 crore. The fire at the Kannahalli plant raged for over 10 days, causing much distress to residents of neighbouring villages. The plant restarted work a few weeks ago.
At Chikkanagamangala, police and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials have deployed earthmovers to move garbage to the other side of the plant to prevent the fire from spreading further.
While Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, BBMP, suspected sabotage for the quick succession of such fires at garbage processing plants facing opposition from local people, activists blamed dumping of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) without precautions — which releases highly combustible methane — for the blaze.
“All our processing plants have huge dumps of RDF, which is a clear indication that mixed waste is being sent to these plants, showing the city and the civic body in poor light. Unless the city segregates waste at source or the civic body takes steps to handle RDF, such fires are going to be reported more often,” Ramprasad, an SWM activist, told The Hindu .
The police are not ruling out sabotage by those within the plant. “The plant had recently stopped functioning owing to withdrawal of power supply because of non-payment of dues. The employees had also been protesting against non-payment of salaries. We will probe into the case once the BBMP lodges a complaint,” a senior police official from Anekal said.
Unless the city segregates waste at source or the civic body takes steps to handle refuse-derived fuel, such fires are going to be reported more often
Ramprasad,
Solid waste management activist
