ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica – Southern Parks and Market (SPM) Waste Management Ltd says it expects that smoke nuisance from a fire which raged Wednesday at the Myersville disposal dump about five miles south east of here will be eliminated by day’s end.

“Our Regional Response team and the Jamaica Fire Brigade were quick on the scene and are working assiduously to extinguish the fire. A team is currently on standby to begin eliminating the smoke in the affected area. We anticipate that the smoke nuisance will be eliminated by the end of the day as all the necessary measures are in place to deal with the situation,” a release from the agency said.

The agency apologised to residents affected by the smoke and said a detailed report will be provided “as soon as a full assessment is carried out by our Operations team”.

Head of the St Elizabeth Fire Department Conroy Ghans told OBSERVER ONLINE in late afternoon that heavy equipment was being used to cover the area of about half an acre with top soil to kill the smoke.

“The flames are mostly out now but there is a lot of smoke so what we are doing is cover all of that area and we expect to bring the problem under control fairly quickly,” he said.

Ghans said the fire department was called at minutes after 7:00 am to deal with the blaze. He was unable to say what triggered it.

Garfield Myers