Minister for Health and Social Development, Carvin Malone, who has responsibility for waste disposal, said on ZBVI radio that the fire has left the plant fully inoperable and has now forced untreated waste to be processed at a landfill site located near the facility.

Malone said he received a call from staff at the facility around 3 am Monday informing him that there was a fire which was started by an explosion.

“A shift that works the particular hour [was there], so once the explosion was heard, they were able to mobilise the team and based on the experience that they had in November or October 2018, they were able to then go into swift action to help [prevent] any further damage than that which was caused by the natural heat and the conveyance over to the control panel,” Minister Malone said.

Propane tank may have led to fire

The Health Minister suggested the explosion was likely caused by a small propane gas tank disposed improperly.

“With the spontaneous combustion that normally occurs with garbage, this again has caused a disruption,” the minister said.

According to Malone, while there is a sprinkler system in place at the Pockwood Pond facility, this was inoperable at the time and was disabled somehow because of the fire and disturbance.

The minister expressed gratitude for neighboring personnel that he said were able to get water trucks that arrived at the facility to assist with the blaze.

He said persons came and were able to use water hoses and were able to remove the debris from inside of the tipping floor to move it to the outside and were able to contain the fire.

“We are also removing all of the debris from the site and putting it to the landfill because we would now know how to have an aggressive fill and cover with dirt so that the likelihood of spontaneous combustion would be greatly reduced,” the minister explained.

No assessment on damage

Malone said he had no clue about the estimated cost of the damage incurred as a result of the fire and related that any initial assessment only looked at what appeared to have been damaged.

He said a control panel as well as the sub panels were affected during the inferno and said this was in addition to electrical wiring which leads from the furnace to the control room.