Overnight Fire in Wood Waste Pile at Wasa Transfer Station 

RDEK staff and contractors responded to a second fire in as many weeks in the wood waste pile at the Wasa Transfer Station overnight.

“The wood waste area has separate piles in one larger open area and last night two of those wood waste piles were intentionally lit,” explains RDEK Solid Waste Superintendent Jim Penson. “There was a good guard around the wood waste pile, so while highly visible, the fire was contained to that area and did not spread further on site.”

RDEK staff and a contractor with water truck and excavator responded just after 8pm and stayed on site throughout the night monitoring the fire to ensure it remained contained.  They remain on site today and will be burning the rest of the pile and fully extinguishing it.

“As part of our regular operations, we burn the wood waste pile annually. We had already applied for a burn registration number and were waiting on a good venting index and proper weather conditions to complete the planned ignition.  As a result of this fire and the one two weeks ago, we made the decision to burn the rest of the pile today as conditions are favourable. Our contractor will remain on site to ensure this piece of the work is done safely and in a controlled manner.”

The Wasa Transfer Station is one of three rural transfer stations in the RDEK that has a marshalling area for the collection of things such as clean wood waste, scrap metal, tires, etc. This is the third fire in the past few weeks at that site and is suspected to be human-caused. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Jim Penson at the RDEK.

-30-