Fighting the Riverton fire

‘It get wicked sometimes, but you just have to make up your mind to deal with it’

BY COREY ROBINSON Sunday Observer staff reporter robinsonc@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, February 12, 2012

WHILE most people affected by heavy smoke from the Riverton City landfill were raising concerns about the health risks it poses, the men trying to out the six-day-old fire yesterday appeared comfortable.

But it wasn’t because they weren’t affected. They had only conditioned their minds for the uncomfortable task, as that is how they earn a living, they told the Sunday Observer.

“It really bad still; the smoke, the heat, everything. It get wicked sometimes, but you just have to make up your mind to deal with it,” said Linford Gallimore, a senior member of one of the tractor teams spreading dirt over sections of the dump.

For Gallimore and his team of four, the dump has become like a camp.

They sat relaxed atop their tractor during a break yesterday, eating, smoking, and drinking alcohol, unconcerned about the smoke, heat, dust, and the stench of rotting animal flesh around them.

All in a day’s work, they said.

“We just have to try to make ourselves comfortable to work with it. We have we food and liquor, that help with the smoke still,” said Gallimore, as he bit into a bun, before passing a container with liquor to one his younger crew members.

“We just have to make the money. If is here the money, is you just have to deal with it,” interjected the youth, as he poured himself a drink.

Gallimore had, in the past, fought three fires at the Riverton landfill but this one, he said, was the largest he had ever seen. And while he praised the efforts of firefighters and fellow tractor operators in minimising the blaze, he admitted that their job “is far from over”.

“No sir, this (fire) not going to done for now. Right here is covered but the fire gone all the way back,” he said, pointing to flames from burning garbage in the distance.

Gallimore said his team has been rotating 12-hour shifts with other tractor operators since the fire started. The work conditions are hardest, he said, whenever the smoke remains over the work site instead of diffusing over surrounding communities.

The lightweight dust masks, worn by only a few operators, offered little ease at those times, he said.

Yesterday, however, the tractor operators and firefighters were not the only ones braving the thick, choking smoke to make a living. Men and women scavenging for reusable items were busy on site as well.

“It not bothering we so much. Before it was, but now it not so bad,” offered one of several middle-aged women sitting nearby. The woman wiped her nose repeatedly as she packed empty plastic bottles into a bag.

Late yesterday afternoon, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in a news release reported that steady progress was being made to curtail the smoke nuisance at the dump.

The release urged persons to avoid inhalation of the smoke by remaining indoors and closing windows and doors. They also urged persons to prevent contamination of clothing by removing them from outdoor lines.

Persons can seek further health-related advice by calling 1-888-663-5683, the release added.

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Fighting the Riverton fire