Blaze at Ida-Viru County landfill site prompts major rescue board callout
Firefighters responded in force on Wednesday to a callout near Kukruse, Ida-Viru County, where a burning garbage pile sent smoke billowing over the surrounding area.
Authorities sent an alert via text message to local residents.
This was the second large-scale fire in the Kukruse area in the last few days, and required the services of both Rescue Board (Päästeamet) and volunteer firefighters (Päästeliit) from several stations in Ida- and Lääne-Viru counties.
Strong breezes meant the blaze rapidly intensified and began to spread over a larger area.
An added complication, firefighters said, arose as water from two reservoirs used to extinguish the fire started to run low.
The Rescue Board often uses local water sources when fighting extensive fires in more outlying areas, but in this case, additional hoses of up to 2 kilometers in length had to be used, to access other bodies of water.
The emergency response center received its first reports of a fire just after 7.20 p.m. on Wednesday evening.
First responders from Jõhvi arrived on site, and located the blaze, which originated in a prominent garbage heap at a landfill site (see gallery) operated by Uikala Prügila AS.
Marek Martinson, head of the operation in Kukruse, said that as of 11 p.m. Wednesday the blaze had engulfed an area of approximately 10,000 to 11,000 square meters.
One of the landfill's warehouses was destroyed in the fire, with fears that the fire could spread to nearby forest.
The incident had been escalated to highest alert level status at around 9.15 p.m., prompting the Rescue Board to send out an emergency alert message via the EE-ALARM system, to nearby residents.
Firefighters urged residents of the Kukruse and Järve districts of Kohtla-Järve's to remain indoors and to stay away from the fire zone, to keep all doors and windows closed and to shut off ventilation.
At shortly after 1 a.m. today, Thursday, the board announced that based on initial forecasts, it would be safe to go outside on Thursday morning.
The Rescue Board pledged to notify residents when the danger had passed via EE-ALARM, which carries the info via an SMS text message.
The board also advised local residents to follow updates on its website and Facebook page.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Merili Nael, Rene Kundla
