Tire Fire Lights Up Tartu
A mountain of vehicle tires caught fire at the abandoned Raadi airport, just north of Tartu, early Monday morning, forcing firefighters to battle until the evening to extinguish the flames.
The tires, piled into a 40 by 50 meter mound, had been collected in 2008 as part of the Let's Do It clean-up campaign, ETV reported.
Arson is suspected.
“This pile has been an attractive target for a while. There have been fires here before, and sadly there will be more in the future [...],” said Kalev Näär of the Rescue Board.
Näär said local residents were asked to close windows and remain indoors, and that no injuries were reported.
The tires had also caught fire a month earlier, but that time it took firefighters only an hour to extinguish flames.
As the company tasked with utilizing the tires has gone bankrupt, the responsibility for looking after the heap lies with the Tartu local municipality, who has not commented on the issue.
The Rescue Board put the cost of extinguishing this latest blaze at 10,000 euros. The board has sent the municipality a letter asking what they have planned for the tires.