‘The whole landfill was on fire’: Crews battle afternoon fire at Iron County landfill

Iron County landfill fire, Cedar City, Utah, July 5, 2020 | Photo by Jeff Richards, Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — First responders from the Cedar City Fire Department and the Bureau of Land Management joined forces to battle a fire at the Iron County landfill Sunday afternoon.

Iron County landfill fire, Cedar City, Utah, July 5, 2020 | Photo by Jeff Richards, Cedar City News

Crews were notified of an out-of-control blaze at the landfill located five miles west of Cedar City at around 2 p.m. when reports began funneling in from across the valley about a large plume of black smoke billowing into the air at the edge of town.

Cedar City Fire Chief Mike Phillips told Cedar City News several units were sent to respond and when they arrived, crews discovered the “whole landfill was on fire” and the fire was threatening a Caterpillar front-end loader and landfill compactor at the site.

“The BLM arrived with us and they helped suppress the fire around the loader and they got in and started it and moved it out,” he said. “The compactor didn’t have a key in it, but the operator from the BLM had a CAT key, so he was able to get in there and save that three-quarter of a million dollar piece of equipment and moved it out of the way.”

The wind was pushing the smoke around a lot, and he said firefighters faced some pretty hot and intense conditions as they worked to contain it. A helicopter arrived to assist making water drops, but no other special equipment was needed.

He said for a moment, they turned the scene over to the landfill but then it jumped out of the box and started a wild land fire six acres to the west of the initial scene.

Helicopter assisting crews at the Iron County landfill fire, Cedar City, Utah, July 5, 2020 | Photo by Jeff Richards, Cedar City News

The small wildland fire ended up around an acre before they got it under control and the landfill fire currently sits at around 10 acres. Another fire erupted at the landfill around June 20, but like this fire, the cause is still yet unknown.

“The landfill operator on that last one said they dug down 20 feet and they found the source, so it had been burning for a while,” Phillips said, adding that he couldn’t speculate as to the cause of the current fire. He expects crews will stay on scene until at least dark and then return back in the morning to continue fighting any flareups.

“It’ll be going for days,” he said.

No injuries or damages to structures at the landfill have been reported at this time.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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