MONTEGO BAY, St James — Executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) Audley Gordon has issued a warning to those responsible for setting sections of the Retirement landfill ablaze, that they will soon be caught.

He was speaking recently with reporters in Falmouth, Trelawny as members of the NSWMA’s SWEEP team provided support to clear a backlog of garbage in the parish and neighbouring St James.

Teams from the NSWMA and the Jamaica Fire Brigade were kept busy fighting at least three fires at the site between last December and January of this year. Gordon has always maintained the blazes were deliberately set.

“We are not out here today to cry. We are out here to say we are closing in on you and we will deal with you with the proper manner whenever you are caught. We’re getting good information and we are putting in place some things that will catch somebody and we will deal with them,” he warned.

He said the authorities have been receiving tips from residents who have grown increasingly incensed about the fires which are taking a toll on their quality of life.

“We are getting some information which we believe will be very useful. We won’t disclose the details… Neither will we disclose what we are doing, but we are going to put a stop to it; it’s going to end. We are not going to tolerate this; is not who we are,” he declared.

Fires at the landfill have long been a source of concern for residents of several communities Montego Bay, which often blankets it in unhealthy smog.

“Whoever is doing this needs to understand that it’s very costly. It does no one any good and in the end, it’s a health hazard for your family, your friends, maybe even you, so desist from that,” Gordon pleaded.

“We have our disposal sites and the people who work there are humans. Their job is already tough and people who would behave in that illicit manner only make the job tougher for their brothers and sisters who work at the disposal site,” he stressed.

He took the time to laud the employees for the work they continue to do, despite challenges.

“They have been tested severely, and they have responded well. The last three fires, notwithstanding the fact that they were arson, clearly from our experience, the workers responded and all of them were put out in record time,” he noted.

He explained that fires started by spontaneous combustion are easily handled while those deliberately set take more effort to address.

“You see the fire moving at a rapid pace which tells you that it was assisted by some chemical,” he said.