Norman Grindley/ Staff Photographer
Smoke billowing from the Riverton dumpsite last weekend.Klao Bell, Staff Reporter
Beneath the thick black cloud that originated at the Riverton City landfill last weekend are swirling tales of conspiracy, anger and revenge.
Residents claim that men who have a grouse with the Metropolitan Parks and Markets (MPM) often set fires at the dump. MPM is the agency charged with the responsibility of clearing garbage in the Corporate Area.
There have been 48 fires at the Riverton landfill since 2000 with 33 in 2001 and ten so far this year. A major fire last year cost MPM $10.5 million to control and clean up the area.
Several Riverton City residents sat with this reporter on the muddy track leading to the landfill on Wednesday, and young and old had dozens of stories to tell. Some claimed to be eyewitness to people deliberately setting the fires. Others admitted to repeating "hear-say". No one wanted his or her name in the newspaper.
According to one man who gave his age as 22, when some people worked and did not get any pay or were laid off "them will light the dump".
This was the case last December, he said, but apparently the police got wind of it and converged on the site to prevent the fires being set.
The observation of another young man was that, "when people vex and free money stop run, them threaten to light the dump".
Yet another young man, 17 years old, said, he has put out many small fires on the dump that he suspects were started by people.
"Plenty time when me go round to the back of the dump with me friend who drive a tractor, mi see fire that we have to put out. This mean that somebody deliberately light it because if the fire did come wid a garbage truck it would be on the front part a the dump site " the young man said.
Fire-fighters theorise that the most recent blaze was started when skips filled with smouldering garbage were taken to the dump.
"Sometimes when the garbage truck takes awhile to come, people set fire to the garbage in the skips at their gates. But when the garbage truck finally comes they don't know that there may be fire in the bottom of it," explained Assistant Superintendent Eugene Burke of the York Park Fire Station.
The Riverton residents have other theories.
"The Seprod truck come dump oily things down deh and when the sun reach it, it catch fire. Them should have a special place to dump the oil," observed another young man.
But Byron Thompson, chief executive officer at Seprod, a major producer of soaps and edible oils, said, "I have never heard of anything from Seprod causing any combustion down there." However, he would check to see where the company dumps its waste that includes an oil-based product.
Asst. Supt. Burke said the Riverton residents' theory is not far-fetched. "Spontaneous combustion can result from oil-based products if it is heated by the sun. It's like gas, the fume is very light," he said.
But many residents who work on garbage trucks or on the site are concerned more about their livelihood than their health because as long as the dumpsite is hot, they are unable to glean the prizes of glass and plastic bottles and wood.
"Look, I can't go collect anything. People make them daily living down there," said an elderly man with long grey locks, pointing to a sea of bottles. Another woman, barefooted, dusty and sunburnt quarrelled that her livelihood has been affected.
"Not even a piece of wood and copper mi can go pick up. The dump is on fire and I can't get nothing," the middle-aged woman said, her eyes glaring from behind a long plait that fell in front of her face.
Yet despite the discomfort felt by people in Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine who woke up to clouds of smoke on Sunday morning, at least one little boy doesn't mind the fire.
"At least the smoke run the mosquito dem. Dem caan gi wi no more disease," he said.
