Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. has issued an Executive Order declaring a State of Emergency throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands in response to the ongoing fire at the Bovoni landfill on St. Thomas, Government House announced Tuesday evening.
Smoke from the fire, which has been burning since Sept. 14, can be seen and smelled for miles and the resulting poor air quality has caused schools and businesses to close, the release said.
“The fire is not sustainably contained and external assistance is required to extinguish the flames below the surface of the green waste area of the Bovoni landfill,” it said. “Immediate action must be taken to secure the necessary support to extinguish the fire, including coordination of firefighting assistance through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.”
The compact, which is law in all 50 states and the nation’s territories, offers assistance during governor-declared states of emergency or disaster through a system that allows states to send personnel, equipment, and commodities to assist with response and recovery efforts in other states, according to the EMAC website.
Bryan’s Executive Order designates Fire EMS Executive Director Daryl George as the incident commander to direct the territorial response and execute the directives for enforcement of the order, and designates the V.I. Fire and Emergency Medical Services as the lead agency to coordinate emergency response activities in conjunction with the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency, according to the release.
The Incident Commander and Director of VITEMA will advise the Office of the Governor on the implementation of the emergency response activities, it said.
Firefighters continue to work to suppress the fire that erupted Thursday and then reignited Friday after it was thought to be extinguished.
The community, especially those who have been affected by the smoke, is cautioned to stay indoors, and to keep windows and doors closed if possible. Heightened caution should be taken to protect and monitor those with respiratory conditions, the VIFEMS said.
Both of the territory’s landfills — the other being the Anguilla landfill on St. Croix — have a long history of environmental problems, including frequent spontaneous blazes. And both are operating now under court-ordered scrutiny.
The most recent report to the court, filed in May, hails the allocation of $146 million in hurricane disaster-related federal funds for the two landfills and says that for the first time, there may actually be enough money to fix most of the problems.
Both Bryan and Lt. Gov. Tregenza Roach are out of the territory — Bryan until Sept. 28 and Roach until Sept. 24, with Finance Commissioner Nominee Kevin McCurdy serving as the acting governor during their absence.
Bryan is traveling to Washington, D.C. and Chicago. He is scheduled to meet with senior White House officials and several members of Congress concerning some of the administration’s key federal policy priorities, including the rum cover-over extension, the reopening of the refinery on St. Croix and waiver of the FEMA 10 percent cost-share requirement for disaster recovery projects. In Chicago, he will speak at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference.
Roach is in Germany attending the National Lieutenant Governors Association cultural and economic development mission.
Copies of all Executive Orders are posted at vi.gov.
