ROCKPORT, Maine — Rockport’s volunteer firefighters spent about 12 hours on a landfill over two days pumping an estimated 180,000 gallons of water on a stubborn fire that sparked under 25 feet of waste.
“The landfill is back open and running business as usual this morning,” Rockport Fire Chief Jason Peasley said late Wednesday morning.
Firefighters were first called to the Mid-Coast Solid Waste Transfer Station around 6:30 a.m. Monday, after flames and smoke were spotted shooting out of a demolition debris pile, according to Peasley. The station is closed on Mondays.
“Typically, if it’s a fire deep down that doesn’t show itself, you let it burn,” Peasley said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t let this one go.”
Rockport firefighters spent about 3 hours dousing flames before they left the scene.
Around 7 a.m. the next morning, fire crews were called back again because the fire rekindled. The landfill was shut down for the day while firefighters worked. Fire departments from Camden, Rockland, Lincolnville and Hope assisted, relieving Rockport firefighters who had already spent many hours at the landfill.
“All my guys are volunteers,” Peasley said, so several missed work to help fight the blaze.
A pair of excavators drove onto the pile to dig so water could reach the source of the fire, in a vein about 25 feet below the surface.
The departments used an estimated 180,000 gallons of water fighting the fire over two days, more than 10 times what’s used fighting an average house fire, according to Peasley. Extinguishing a typical house fire only takes about 3,000-15,000 gallons, depending on the size of the structure and how widespread the fire is, he said.
The fire chief said the director of the transfer station is looking into ways to prevent future fires from getting out of control. One method is to drive a pipe with holes into the landfill, making it easier to pump water under the surface if landfill crews notice a hotspot.
Landfills are prone to fires. Decomposition under the surface can build up a lot of heat, and eventually spark combustibles hidden below, such as batteries or oily rags.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.