San Ignacio Transfer Station Blaze Fully Contained After Two Days

Today, fire personnel coupled with workers in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing (MIDH) were able to fully extinguish a fire that broke out at the San Ignacio Transfer Station on Monday morning. The situation has raised concerns about harmful fumes being emitted into the air, and led to garbage piling up in the twin towns. According to the Belize Solid Waste Management Authority, around 10 o’clock, embers from an external fire were blown onto the compound and sparked multiple waste fires. Despite the fire department’s quick response, the gusty winds have made containment a challenge. Heavy equipment was brought in to create firebreaks and protect critical infrastructure. However, despite a fire truck remaining on site overnight, the department was not able to fully douse the flames until today. This morning, Mayor of San Ignacio and Santa Elena, Earl Trapp, spoke on how the situation affected the community. 

Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio/ Santa Elena: “The smoke so far has been affecting  the surrounding area especially where the wind would blow more towards the west or maybe more towards the south at times west south, west, no? And basically, some people have called me that they are being affected by that, but there’s only so much we can do. But where we are being affected immensely is here within the Twin Tongs of San Ignacio and Santa Elena the reason being that our trucks need to go to the dump site at least two times per day.  So we have six compact trucks and so it means that those compact trucks should be there at least like our trucks at like twelve trucks goes there every day.  And it’s been affecting us because yesterday we couldn’t. This morning we had to be there for five so we could empty our trucks and come back and refill, pick up the garbage. Our trucks are basically ready to dump, but they called our manager, our sanitation manager and said to him that our trucks cannot go there until further notice because the big dump trucks or the trailer trucks that have been taking away the garbage from the dump site have not arrived and basically, as a matter of fact, they just left this morning with the garbage that we took. So now for us to take a second trip they are not accepting it until the truck comes back to the transfer station. I’m hoping that the trucks will be able to make it today. Otherwise, the compact trucks will be sitting at the garage until tomorrow morning again, hopefully, to take it and then they will carry it away to Belize. So it certainly is putting a damper on us.”

Mayor Trapp noted that while the fire is being addressed, it highlights a greater concern of proper garbage management. He says that mountains of trash continuously pile up at the facility due a lack of proper management.  

Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio/ Santa Elena: “It’s calling for the relevant authorities to revisit the procedures of how they dispose of the garbage. You know, because in my humble opinion, it’s been deteriorating over the past three to four years and lately it’s gotten worse. So I think they have slipped down somewhere and hence the reason it’s not being disposed of properly. Just here in December, I visited the area and my god it was really out of control. The garbage was piled up all outside. Remember we have the transfer station that was filled to capacity and then outside and around the transfer station was again as well filled to capacity. So certainly something has not been working and it’s time for the relevant authorities to revisit the procedures and see how they can more effectively and efficiently manage the disposal of the garbage from that point.”

Authorities are now urging the public to avoid lighting fires near waste sites, homes, or vegetated areas.