MONTEGO BAY, St James — National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) Executive Director Audley Gordon says the fire at the Retirement Disposal Facility should be under control today.

“We are fully mobilised and working assiduously to bring back normality at the landfill in a very short time. My crew there has just informed me that, based on how things are looking, they should be able to get things under control before nightfall, and then tomorrow [today] we may just be dealing with smoke,” Gordon told the Jamaica Observer on Monday afternoon.

According to Gordon, a mysterious blaze erupted at Retirement dump late Sunday night. The executive director further stated that, based on the fire’s sudden and violent nature, the solid waste team strongly believes the disposal site was tampered with by arsonists.

The blaze, he said, started near 11:00 pm Sunday.

“We are more than convinced, based on where it started, in a very hard-to-reach area of the disposal site at that time of night and at the rate at which it was spreading in the early stages, that it is indicative of some human assistance to it. It’s not the normal spontaneous combustion. So we believe that all this could’ve been the work of arsonists,” Gordon added.

He shared that the solid waste team is currently awaiting reports from the Jamaica Fire Brigade, which had assisted with the fire on Monday morning, and the police, who are investigating.

“Early in the day we involved the Fire Brigade, and we reported the matter to the police this morning. So we are hoping that the investigations from both the Jamaica Fire Brigade and the Jamaica Constabulary Force will give a more conclusive picture. But at this time, that is our heartfelt belief,” Gordon said.

The Retirement Disposal Site is no stranger to fires. However, Gordon maintained that the current blaze was no spontaneous combustion.

“We have seen different things happen for different reasons. I can’t really get into people’s heads, to be honest, and to say why, but we know that the disposal facilities around the island [have been tampered] with; we have seen that on more than one occasion. Sometimes it’s just plain mischief,” he said.

“We are comfortable in stating a belief that this was not just a spontaneous combustion, but we will await the report of the fire department and the police,” Gordon told the Observer.

“It’s unfortunate and we ask people to desist from things like that because it’s very costly to put out fires, it’s very costly to get these equipment to work overtime,” he said.

“We have to have men and women working in very tough situations to manage and put out these fires. We really wish we don’t have to deal with incidents like these and we ask that people be more responsible,” Gordon added.

In the meantime, Gordon told the Observer that the NSWMA is working to ensure that the Christmas holiday is not ruined for residents in the surrounding areas.

“The smoke is usually the challenge. Even when you put out the blaze and cover the area, you could still have the smoke nuisance. But we are going to be working assiduously. We don’t want this kind of a distraction or nuisance in the city of Montego Bay or in the environment. We don’t want it any time, especially now. It’s Christmas,” he said.