ST JAMES, Jamaica — Western Parks and Markets (WPM), the regional arm of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), says smoke at the Retirement Disposal site could be contained by later Friday.

Last Saturday, a section of the landfill was reported to be on fire leading to copious amounts of smoke stretching across several communities in Montego Bay.

The fire has since been contained but, according Regional Manager for WPM, Dramaine Jones, the smoke has persisted for the last few days.

“The rains on Thursday managed to contain the remaining flames and some of the smoke. However we are hopeful to completely deal with the smoke nuisance by Friday afternoon,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Friday.

On Thursday, he told the regular monthly council meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation that they had intended to contain the situation if certain factors remained favourable.

“We are hoping that there is no rain this afternoon, if there is no rain, with the assistance of the fire department as well with what our teams on the ground are currently doing we should see zero smoke emitting from the area by the end of this evening,” he said.

Jones revealed that two sections holding debris from the NSWMA’s Debris Management Programme and bulky waste collections were the areas responsible for the smoke.

Hee explained that they have faced challenges which has prolonged the situation.

“There were two factors that affected us, one which was the continuous afternoons rains within the area and basically it’s a blessing as well and hindrance because with the blessings, it came in terms of putting out some of the smoke and open flames but also the part of it which affected us was that it made the area extremely soggy, so it made access to the smoke a bit challenging so we had issues with trucks being stuck etc,” he explained.

“However we have been pushing on, what we’ve decided to is that we’ve adjusted operations to start a bit earlier so when we start earlier we able to capture as much of the sunlight as possible and while doing that we are able to push a bit further,” he revealed.

He said there has been progress in containing the smoke, which has made the issue less impactful on residents in the general area.

“We are at between 35-45 per cent of the approximately one acre that was in smoke and, as of today, we are down to about 25 per cent of the smoke that was initially there, estimated,” he said.

“We will be covering the area as this was the intention prior to the fire. However, as I’ve said the area was being prepared and with the preparation it was already flattened, it’s just a matter of ensuring that the cover material is applied,” he added.