Malone’s conviction is now evidenced from an amateur video he circulated locally last evening.

The video shows a male resident standing beside, and seemingly nurturing a bonfire inside the dump.

After sharing the 19-second video, the minister wrote: “Footage of someone catching fire at the dumpsite at Pockwood Pond. I was always convinced that most fires at the various dumps were deliberate.”

Fires previously considered ‘spontaneous combustions’

Over the last several months, multiple fires have happened at the Pockwood Pond dump, especially. Before this video surfaced, officials have been describing the fires as “spontaneous combustions”.

Just weeks ago in December, Malone said his ministry was focusing on how to prevent spontaneous combustions at local dump sites.

Speaking in an interview with BVI News at the time, the minister said: “The BVI Waste Management Strategy will incorporate what are our steps ahead for legislation and for an immediate, medium, and long-term fix to the issue of the spontaneous combustions at the waste [facility] down at Pockwood Pond and Virgin Gorda and Anegada,” the minister stated.

“We have to get it fixed and we have to reduce the amount of waste going into the stream. So it’ a comprehensive look that we are now embarking on. And coming this week, you will hear a lot more on it,” he further told our news centre.

Authorities have been dumping Tortola’s waste on, and along the hillside since an unrelated fire that rendered the Pockwood Pond incinerator non-functional back November 2018. The incinerator has since been repaired but there have been a number of fires where the piles of trash were being dumped.