Update:The fire was rapidly contained and Anguilla Landfill reopened 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 3.
(First published March 3) The Anguilla Landfill is on fire again, according to a release from the V.I. Waste Management Authority.
According to a release from WMA, the fire was reported at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3. The fire is located at the northeast corner of the landfill and has been contained as of 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Landfill operations have been temporarily suspended for the remainder of Tuesday. Haulers also are asked to hold waste until normal operating hours resume.
This is at least the ninth fire at the St. Croix landfill in the past 12 months and the fourth since the year began less than three months ago. There was a fire reported on Feb. 8. Smoke from a fire in January impacted St. Croix’s airport. There was a fire in October of 2019. A fire on July 7, 2019 burned for several days.
On July 2, 2019, Waste Management reported that a fire that began burning on June 30 in the scrap metal area had been contained and was smoldering, but under control.
The agency announced on June 25, 2018, that a fire that had been burning since June 17 had finally been controlled. That nine-week fire caused extensive damage.
There have been a number of fires at the landfill over the years. It caught fire three times in 2018.
There was a fire at Anguilla in 2012. And a fire burned for many years at the dump until extinguished in 2009 at a cost of more than $3.9 million.
In 2008, Waste Management officials said that fire had been burning underground since around 1966 or 1967. Other, separate fires were reported at times during the intervening years.
Under the terms of a nine-year-old settlement agreement, Anguilla was supposed to close on Sept. 30, 2018. The Waste Management Authority hired Oasis Consulting to design a closure process for Anguilla and to help pick, and open, a new site in the near future. No source of funding for the closure has been made public as of Feb. 20.
