Landfill Fires in Finland

Abstract

On average, there were 633 sanitary landfills in operation in 1990-92 in Finland. Annually, 380 landfill fires occurred, one-quarter of which were deep fires. The total amount of waste burnt in landfill fires was estimated to be 84,000 tonnes year-1. Unsufficient covering and compacting, ash disposal and deliberate fire starting were reported to be the most typical reasons for waste ignition. The most severe deep fires lasted for 2 months. A 10 m high, 35,000 m3 large experimental bank of waste was built, instrumented and set on fire from a 7 m deep well located at the centre of the area. Wood was burnt in this ignition well to produce glowing embers, which were covered with waste and soil layers. No spread of fire was detected after covering the ignition well. However, the fire was not extinguished by covering but remained smouldering throughout the experiment. To extinguish the fire, it was necessary to dig up the smouldering fire and cool it. © 1996 ISWA

An Assessment of the Contribution of Municipal Solid Waste Dump Sites Fire to Atmospheric Pollution

“…Landfill emissions are the result of the decomposition of organic materials in the landfill (including yard waste, household waste, food waste, and paper). Because of the nature of the construction of landfills, this decomposition is anaerobic [15] and results in the production of large quantities of methane (which is highly flammable) and carbon dioxide. In fact, landfills are the largest source of methane emissions in the United States, accounting for 35 percent of methane emissions in 1999 [16].…”

Effect of an uncontrolled fire and the subsequent fire fight on the chemical composition of landfill leachate

“…The most effective way of extinguishing a subsurface landfill fire is to excavate the landfill and extinguish the burning masses using water or other fire fighting agents (United States Fire Administration, 2002;Ettala et al, 1996;Sperling, 2001). Extinguishing a landfill fire by covering the burning masses and thus limiting the availability of oxygen is reported to be less efficient (Ettala et al, 1996), even though this can limit the intensity of the fire (Sperling, 2001). In places, the landfill was 12-m deep, making the fire fighting difficult.…”

Fire in waste-fuel stores: risk management and estimation of real cost

“…Usually, they receive more public attention than other kinds of fire. The number of full-scale fires studied is very few [16][17][18]. Waste dump fires usually comprise both surface and sub-surface fires.…”