Red hot Ghazipur: Delhi's mountain of shame up in flames, again

NEW DELHI: A major fire erupted at east Delhi's Ghazipur landfill - dubbed as one of the three mountains of shame of the capital - on Sunday evening. At least nine fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flames, a Delhi Fire Service official said. The fire could not be put out till the time of going to press. This was the first blaze of the season at a landfill site in the capital.

A DFS official said the call regarding the fire was received at 5.20 pm. "Initially, two fire tenders were dispatched to the spot, but as the fire started to spread, more tenders with about 50 personnel were sent to bring the flames under control,"he said. Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials said the fire broke out at the rear end of the landfill facing the fish market where fresh dumping of waste was started sometime back. "As soon as the fire broke out, our field staff called the nearby fire station for help. Considering an agency is already doing the bio-mining work at the landfill, it also diverted its five excavator machines to douse the flames," the official said.

According to initial probe, the fire seemed to have broken out due to the production of methane in the fresh garbage.
"On Sunday afternoon, there was a sudden rise in the temperature, and it appears that the methane being released from the garbage got in contact with the air and the fire broke out. We have asked our staff to be more vigilant, considering the temperature is going to rise in the coming days, and a major incident of fire can happen in case of any negligence," said the official.
In 2019, Ghazipur landfill stood as high as 65 metres, just eight metres less than Qutub Minar. Three incidents of fire were reported at the site in 2022, including one on March 28, which could be doused after over 50 hours. In April 2022, after another major fire broke there, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai launched a nine-point action plan to prevent a repeat of such incidents.
Thereafter, in its summer action plan released on May 1, 2023, Delhi govt announced a series of steps. However, on June 12, 2023, yet another major fire broke out at Ghazipur. While work on flattening the three landfills is under way, a revised deadline of 2026 has been set for Ghazipur. A Dec 2023 deadline given for flattening Okhla landfill and March 2024 date for Bhalswa site have already been breached.
Delhi BJP accused AAP in MCD of being negligent about the flattening of landfills, as well as their maintenance. "A major fire broke out at the site, causing the entire area to be filled with smoke and significant inconvenience to residents. While CM Arvind Kejriwal is in jail, environment minister Gopal Rai and mayor Shelly Oberoi did not bother to visit the site," Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor alleged. "AAP has been pushing the deadlines for levelling the three landfills repeatedly, and new heaps of garbage have been formed at Ghazipur," Kapoor added.
Deputy mayor and AAP councillor Aaley Iqbal visited the site in the evening and later posted on 'X': "After a case of fire came to light at Ghazipur landfill, the site was inspected. Instructed the officials to control the fire quickly. The fire broke out due to heat and dryness in the weather."