In India, on the outskirts of New Delhi, a landfill burned down. The flames engulfed a mountain of garbage taller than a 17-story building and covering an area of 50 football fields. The Prime Minister of India called on regional governments to pay special attention to fire safety due to the difficult climatic situation in the country.
India’s capital, New Delhi, is engulfed in toxic smoke from the burning Bhalswa landfill in the northeast of the city. The landfill flared up during an abnormally early heat wave, when the thermometer in the metropolis rose above 40 ° C, reports Reuters.
The sun is almost invisible due to the acrid smoke. Thousands of people who live near the landfill and make money from recycling waste are trying to put out the fire themselves.
Sonu, the garbage man: “Look, what a terrible situation! We inhale this smoke, it causes illness. I feel pain when I breathe, and everyone here lives like this. What to do?”
Because of the incident, local authorities had to close the school near the landfill. Firefighters are currently working in the Bahlswa area, but they have not yet been able to control the flames.
Early heat and fire safety were the topics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech.
“Temperatures in the country are rising rapidly, and this is happening much earlier than usual. At such times, we have seen an increase in the number of fires in different places – in the jungle, important buildings and hospitals – in the last few days,” the chief minister said.
The head of government appealed to state authorities with a request to conduct fire preparedness checks at enterprises and social institutions.
The Indian capital, like the rest of South Asia, is experiencing record heat. Because of it, as local authorities say, the landfill caught fire.
The landfill was planned to be closed more than ten years ago, but more than two thousand tons of municipal waste are still dumped there every day. Organic matter decomposes, leading to the accumulation of flammable gas.
The air in the Indian capital is recognized as the dirtiest in the world; a fire could irrevocably destroy the local ecology.