Gyan Sarovar School, a child resource centre for underprivileged children of ragpickers living near the national Capital’s Bhalswa landfill site in north Delhi, has been closed for a week due to a massive fire in the area which has been raging for over 24 hours. Residents of the area have also started complaining of sore throat, itchy eyes and breathing problems. The fire broke out at the landfill site on Tuesday evening and the fire department rushed 10 fire tenders to the spot. Later, three more fire tenders were pressed into service.
According to fire officials, efforts are still on to douse the flames.“The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, however, the rising temperature, these days, allows the formation of methane gas at the landfill site which is extremely flammable,” said an official. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the air quality at the Dhirpur monitoring station, just six km from the landfill site, showed ‘severe’ category.
The pollutant PM 2.5 was at 316 (severe) and PM 10 at 251 (poor). Several videos showed the blaze engulfing the mountain of garbage, sending a dense plume of smoke into the sky. The Ghazipur landfill has seen three such fires since March 28. The wet waste dumped in a landfill produces methane when it rots. In hot weather conditions, methane catches fire spontaneously and the blaze spreads as it feeds on combustible material like textiles and plastics.
Asked about how does the school function in case of frequent fires, Father Santhosh of the Gyan Sarovar School said, "Usually, it’s on the other side of the landfill and not on the side where the school is situated. We do see smoke up in the air from a distance at times but it is never this unbearable."