Posted on 07/26/2016 8:01:34 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
World's largest sawdust dump is on fire 'and will burn for years'
By The Siberian Times reporter 25 July 2016
Greenpeace concern as firefighters say they cannot extinguish 3 year blaze with smoke visible from space.
The mountain of sawdust is the size of more than 800 Olympic swimming pools at a site in the Ust-Kutsky district of Irkutsk region. A council spokesman said: 'It is now impossible to extinguish dump with such an amount of sawdust.
'Obviously, it will keep burning for a few more years.'
It has remained aflame winter and summer for around three years - and is seen on the video below.
Greenpeace say the sawdust dump is the largest of its kind in the world, and the campaign group has raised concerns over the smoke pollution from the site.
Already there is more than two million cubic metres of waste dumped here, reported to be waste from the Trans-Siberian Forest Company. Every day 15 new trucks arrive, each carrying around 70 cubic metres of sawdust.
The site of the endless fire is 10.4 hectares in size or 1.1 million square feet.
The company has taken measures to prevent the spread of the smoldering flames, with a mineral border line around the dump and firefighting equipment on permanent standby.
Alexander Yaroshenko, head of the Forestry Programme of Greenpeace Russia, said:'Over the past three years this fire has caused dangerous smoke to Ust-Kut and nearby settlements multiple times, with overall population of about 50,000 people.
'That is an emergency situation of at least regional scale.'
Measurements taken by state watchdog Rospotrebnadzor show that the dump fire did not cause changes to concentration of carbon dioxide in the air near the dump on days when Ust-Kut was covered with smoke, say reports.
The area has been hit recently by wildfire smoke, too.
They could mix the sawdust with paraffin and make fire starters...
I disagree. The worlds largest sawdust dump is the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphiia. The 2nd largest is on fire
Why would there be a sawdust dump? Why hasn’t this been burned previously? Or used to make fiberboard? Or Arby’s?
“Greenpeace say the sawdust dump is the largest of its kind in the world, and the campaign group has raised concerns over the smoke pollution from the site.”
Boo Hoo! Deal with it.
It’s not visible on my google earth, but then again, the image date is 12/31/1969.
you would think they could find something to do with that much sawdust.
Pack it into fuel logs compressed with some paraffin and you have logs to heat your home
Seems like an awful waste.
Cant they bulldoze the non-burning sections away?
The difference between the sawdust burning versus the sawdust rotting is about 10 years. To the best of my knowledge there is otherwise no meaningful chemical difference.
Red Adair could put that out if he was still alive.
He’d drop a MOAB on it.
It reminds me of the time I lit my compost pile of decaying yard debris on fire. It smoldered for days, and it stunk! I won’t make that mistake again...
Can’t they make something out of this - bread for Venezuela, or something like that.
A fire on a 10 hectare (25 acre) site in the middle of nowhere. Is this a joke?
That is the best solution. The Russian air force could make bombing practice runs and extinguish it in a day or two.
Russia sure finds interesting ways to get in the Guinness book of records. Wonder who the current contender is for longest/largest burning sawdust fire?
I would view sawdust as a resource.
Why do they just dump it?
That’s santa Clarita
Why would there be a sawdust dump? Why hasn’t this been burned previously? Or used to make fiberboard? Or Arby’s?
...
LOL.
Arby’s always made me sick.
Wow. Who would have predicted that such a large pile of sawdust would catch fire?
Sorry, sarcasm is the only response I can find to this. What a waste - that would have been some amazing dirt if composted properly!
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