Emergency crews responded to the New Hanover County landfill in the early morning hours of Aug. 20 after a lithium battery likely sparked an overnight fire.
At approximately 3:43 a.m., New Hanover County Fire Rescue responded to a reported fire at the county landfill on U.S. 421. Upon arrival, firefighters located a 100-foot diameter fire on the eastern side of the facility. Soft ground conditions prevented the fire apparatus from directly accessing the area, but crews used specialized vehicles to reach the fire and water the perimeter to prevent it from spreading.
Landfill staff extinguished the remaining fire by covering the burning material with soil, while fire crews remained on scene until it was confirmed that landfill staff could manage
the area. All Fire Rescue units cleared the scene at approximately 6:20 a.m.
County Recycling and Solid Waste Director Joe Suleyman said that due to the circumstances of the timing, the cause of the fire was likely a discarded lithium battery. The fire was reported over nine hours after staff had stopped working for the day. Suleyman said that he believes the battery was dumped toward the end of the day and smoldered for hours before flames became visible from the highway.
“Lithium batteries can get very hot, as anybody who has an old laptop or cellphone will tell you,” Suleyman said. “Once that battery is compromised and gets exposed to air, it can get up to very high temperatures. With the tremendous amount of fuel that’s available in close proximity to that battery, it can get out of control pretty quickly.”
As required by federal regulations, all waste is covered with six inches of soil or an approved alternative at the end of each day. Suleyman said that the covering has four purposes: eliminating wind-blown litter, suppressing odors, prevent disease carrying organisms such as rats from accessing waste and cutting off the oxygen supply to suppress subsurface fires.
Landfill fires are not uncommon, Suleyman said. The last fire at the New Hanover facility was just a few months ago. The situations can arise in a number of ways, often stemming from chemical reactions in waste or from the heat of a garbage truck’s exhaust pipe.
Suleyman advised residents to dispose of lithium batteries at one of the county’s drop off sites or collection bins located at New Hanover libraries, Cape Fear Community College and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Daniel Sheehan covers New Hanover County for the StarNews. Reach him at dsheehan@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Officials detail cause, response to New Hanover landfill fire
