By Steve Hubrecht
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A small garbage bin fire at the Canal Flats transfer station last week was quickly extinguished by the Canal Flats Fire Department and by Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) waste disposal staff.

The effort to get the fire under control only took about an hour, however during that hour, local residents ignored the safety barriers erected around the site and tried to throw their garbage in the bins. This prompted the RDEK to issue a press release noting that this is the second time in a month that the public has ignored barriers at RDEK sites and attempted to dispose of their waste while an emergency is obviously underway.

 “Not only could this pose a safety concern, it inhibits our ability to respond to the incident when the public goes around barriers and tries to dispose of their waste,” said RDEK solid waste Superintendent Jim Penson in the press release. 

“While we appreciate it can be very frustrating to get to the transfer station and find it temporarily inaccessible, we are asking for the public’s understanding and cooperation in respecting the boundaries – especially in a situation where there is fire.” 

Penson thanked the Canal Flats Fire Department for its help.

“There was a large load of pine needles in the bin that were smouldering and burning. Once it was fully wet-down, the load was taken off site by our contractor so we could spread it out and ensure there were no hot spots,” said Penson. 

The first incident this month occurred in Wasa, where the RDEK has a two bin set-up, Penson explained to the Pioneer.

“One bin in Wasa was on fire. Not with huge flames coming up out of the bin, but definitely smouldering and putting up a lot of smoke,” said Penson.

As Penson and a fellow RDEK staff member worked to put out the fire in the Wasa bin “other people kept showing up, and trying to throw their garbage in the bin. Not the bin that was fine, but the bin that had smoke pouring out of it. Eventually I had to pull my truck in and park it in such a way that nobody else could get into the site.”

Of those people, and the people in Canal Flats who tried to throw out their trash there while that bin was on fire, Penson said “it unfortunately seems that there are a lot of people out there who feel they really are in a big hurry, and who just can’t wait to the throw out their garbage.”

After firefighters flooded the Canal Flats bin, it was removed to the landfill and then replaced with a new bin.