Calgary firefighters are continuing their efforts to contain a fire that ignited Sunday evening at a southeast landfill.
The Calgary Fire Department (CFD) says smoke and flames were reported about 6 p.m. near Barlow Trail and Shepard Road S.E., where crews found a large fire on the east side of the ECCO Recycling landfill.
The operation to contain the fire continued into the following day, and was ongoing as of Monday afternoon. Landfill staff and the city’s waste and recycling services unit are helping CFD in its efforts to contain and extinguish the blaze.
Keith Stahl, a battalion chief with the CFD, said firefighters struggled to get to the landfill Sunday due to “really, really wet conditions and almost impassable road conditions within the area.”
“That forced our crews to head over onto the east side into another property that was adjacent to the landfill and set up defensive operations to try and hold the fire to its area of origin,” he told CBC News.
Smoke expected to reach some Calgary communities
“One of the biggest concerns that we have going forward is the fact that there is a fairly substantial plume of smoke that’s emitting from the site,” Stahl said.
He said wind is carrying that smoke through southeast Calgary, with those in the communities of Copperfield, Douglasdale, East Shepard, McKenzie Towne, New Brighton and Quarry Park expected to notice it.
“We do recommend that people keep their windows closed, and not to be outside unless they have to,” Stahl said.
CFD crews are sampling the air and tracking the smoke’s movement, and the department is working with Alberta Environment to manage the situation.
The fire department said it’s unclear what caused the fire.
Multiple fires reported at landfill in recent history
It’s not the first time the ECCO Recycling landfill has caught fire. Crews extinguished blazes there in 2019 and 2022, with Environment Canada issuing a special air quality statement for Calgary due to smoke from the latter.
“From the perspective of public safety, I would definitely say that the Calgary Fire Department is consistently challenged with this site both in compliance and accessibility,” Stahl said.
He said the city is currently “looking into the ramifications of another incident at this site.”
“We will continue to support any entity within the city of Calgary, but it definitely is a pull on our resources overall within the city of Calgary when these incidents happen due to their nature, size, and how difficult it is to access and utilize equipment on the site,” he said.