The fire at a southeast Calgary recycling and landfill site continues to burn and send smoke into the air, however it is under control at this time, fire officials said.

Chief Steve Dongworth of the Calgary Fire Department (CFD) provided an update on Wednesday afternoon about the landfill fire at ECCO Recycling and Energy Corp., located in the Shepard Industrial area, which has been burning since Sept. 6.

The fire is considered under control, but smoke remains a concern, as does the possibility of flare-ups as crews continue working. Chief Dongworth said that they should be able to control the smoke in the coming days, but that it might take weeks or months to fully extinguish it.

He explained that the fire is active deep within the landfill materials, making it hard for workers to reach problem areas using the 10 trucks deployed at the site. Their current strategy includes smothering the fire and adjacent air pockets with dirt using contracted dowsers.

Dongworth said that the CFD is working with partner agencies and specialized engineers with experience remedying more than 60 large landfill fires. He reiterated that the site is about the size of eight football fields and stressed that they are using every available option. 

“We’re confident we’re taking the right steps in the right order with the right resources at this time,” said Dongworth. 

“To those residents in impacted communities, we appreciate your resilience and your patience.”

Eliminating the smoke is one of their top priorities, he said, and listed the neighbourhoods on the east side of Macleod Trail between Remington and Legacy as those that will continue to experience air quality concerns. 

He recommended that residents keep doors and windows closed and limit time spent outdoors, especially those with preexisting health conditions. Ward 11 Coun. Rob Ward emphasized that the fire department is making strides to mitigate risk. 

“Touring the site today, I can say our fire department is resourced very well,” he said. 

“The efficiency of the operation is what I would describe as optimized to the absolute maximum. Access to the site is very difficult and very limited, so simply adding more resources, from what I can see, actually wouldn’t expedite things — it would actually slow it down.”

Company responsible will receive a hefty bill, says fire chief

Two days ago, Mayor Jeromy Farkas confirmed that the City of Calgary had been pursuing court action against ECCO after a ruling required the company to stop storing dry waste at its site. 

The city sought an additional injunction after finding that the company continued accepting waste outside its development permit. Dongworth said the area has been known to the CFD following previous fires recorded at the site.  

As a result, he said ECCO will be charged the costs of extinguishing the fire. Dongworth was unable to provide an estimated amount as efforts are ongoing, but mentioned the contracted equipment and incident management team as examples of expenses. 

“It’ll be a very significant amount of money,” he said. 

“You look at the amount of equipment that’s operating on this site right now — that’s a pretty big price tag.”

Coun. Ward said the legal case has been ongoing since before this incident and that, because of this, the city was not in a position to interrupt the process to prevent what is happening today. He said he hopes for justice to be served in the form of “serious consequences.”

“I mean, when somebody appears to be blatantly ignoring orders and safety regulations, then there needs to be consequences for that,” said Ward.

“Ultimately, the consequences are not up to me; they’re up to the court and the judge. But yeah, there needs to be consequences for blatantly not following the rules.”

Earlier this week, the Government of Alberta announced it has monitored air quality in the area and found a relatively low health risk. Regardless, Ward said that he sympathizes with nearby residents for having to endure the outcome.

“I truly do feel for residents,” he said.

“I’ve come here every single day to check it out, and yeah, it’s terrible. The smell is terrible. I believe it does impact your breathing.”

Residents affected by the smoke have been encouraged to contact Health Link by dialling 811 and to also check the current conditions online using Alberta’s Air Quality Health Index.