Southwestern town still in flames and smoke: Rescuers cover landfill with soil, water's no help

At the non-sanitary landfill of Stanjevina, which is located at the entrance to Prijepolje, along the main road toward the border with Montenegro, the fire continues to rage, and the authorities have begun to cover the flames with soil, because the fire is difficult to extinguish with water due to the thickness of the deposits.

"Firefighting and rescue units are doing everything they can to prevent the fire from spreading. Four tank trucks, two fire stations and two municipal utility vehicles have been soaking the landfill all night. However, because of the thickness of the deposits on fire, it's difficult to extinguish it with water, it's necessary for the landfill to be filled with a buffer, that is, soil and debris," the commander of the fire and rescue unit in Prijepolje, Vujadin Kovacevic, said last night.

He stressed that extinguishing the fire is difficult because the landfill contains huge deposits of waste of different origin.

Meanwhile, dense smoke is covering the Lim valley, with the situation being most difficult in the Zalug settlement opposite the landfill.

This also creates a potential danger to traffic, because, depending on air currents, dense smoke also hangs over the highway itself.

JKP Lim Director Enis Memisahovic says that the covering of the burning landfill with soil started last night, but that large quantities are needed because of the huge area involved.

"Roads of Uzice (public company) helped us with four trucks because we don't have large trucks and heavy machinery in our fleet. What we covered tonight is enough to make paths for firefighters to approach," said Memisahovic.

He also pointed out that the JKP has neither enough soil nor debris to get the job done.

Garbage has been disposed of at this landfill for 50 years, while on a weekly basis the local public utility company JKP Lim offloads around 200 tons.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)