Bahamas Landfill Fire Under Control But Residents Told Not To Go … – Caribbean360.com (subscription)

The smoke from the landfill has not cleared up as yet.

NASSAU, The Bahamas, Wednesday March 8, 2017 Residents of a community near the burning landfill in The Bahamas capital are not expected to get the all-clear to return to their homes for another few days.

While the massive fire at the New Providence Landfill in Nassau has been contained, Environment and Housing Minister Ken Dorsett said there will still be smoke in the Jubilee Gardens area and it was best for residents to stay away for now.

He said the firefighters were battling not only the fire at the landfill but also a forest fire in the surrounding areas.

Residents were forced to evacuate their homes when the fire, which began on Sunday, sent thick, black hazardous smoke into their neighbourhood.

We will probably be experiencing smoke for the next five to seven days. That is how long it will take to put this out. It will not be an easy fix, Dorsett said at a press conference on Monday.

We are still not recommending people return to their homes in Jubilee Gardens. The wind changes direction throughout the course of the day, but from what I have seen I do not think the police have changed their advice thus far in terms in returning to their homes.

Despite an evacuation order being in place for the rest of the week, some residents have returned to their area to assess whether their homes sustained any damage.

Prime Minister Perry Christie said government was considering providing financial assistance to residents who have been adversely affected.

He said at the press conference that damage assessments have started and the government will do whatever it takes to ensure that residents are returned to sense of normalcy in the shortest time period.

To the extent that premises were affected whether discoloration as a result of the smoke, whether inside fumigation what we would want to do and to give very serious consideration to is making that assessment and having the ministry coordinate an effective restitution, restoration process by way of assisting the residents to normalcy meaning, getting in there and whatever remediation process that should be initiated inside of the home, to restore it to what it should be, even with respect to painting outside the home if that has been affected Christie said.

The government will in fact involve itself in that process to ameliorate the situation for people and to bring them as quickly as possible back homeThe government will take further steps to ensure that the families that are affected will have some form of restoration back to normalcy.

Prime Minister Perry Christie (centre) at the press conference with Environment and Housing Minister Ken Dorsett (left) and Fire Services Chief, Superintendent Walter Evans (right). (Photo: Office of the Prime Minister Facebook page)

Meantime, noting that this was not the first fire at the landfill, the Prime Minister admitted that mistakes were made in handling solid waste at the dump by successive governments.

But he said he was personally involved in selecting a new manager for the landfill to introduce greater levels of technology and resources which would get rid of the problems nearby residents have faced over the years, once and for all.

We had meetings with a foreign entity with the capacity and assets that they manage in the US, and we met with a Bahamian group who advanced a foreign partnership with the expertise and resources.Together, we were approaching the final sort of concluding aspects of determining a new management company and the introduction of the measures that we believe would in fact eliminate, forever and forever, the kind of tragic circumstances that took place out there, Prime Minister Christie said.

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Bahamas Landfill Fire Under Control But Residents Told Not To Go ... - Caribbean360.com (subscription)