A bin fire at the Canal Flats Transfer Station was quickly snuffed out yesterday, but the RDEK is asking residents to respect barriers after several people attempted to throw away their garbage while the bin was on fire.
RDEK officials said this is the second time in the last month that the public has not obeyed barriers.
“Not only could this pose a safety concern, it inhibits our ability to respond to the incident when the public goes around barriers and tries to dispose of their waste,” said RDEK Solid Waste Superintendent Jim Penson.
“While we appreciate it can be very frustrating to get to the transfer station and find it temporarily inaccessible, we are asking for the public’s understanding and cooperation in respecting the boundaries – especially in a situation where there is fire.
The bins were closed for approximately one hour.
“We’d like to thank the Canal Flats firefighters for their assistance in wetting down the bin and
ensuring the fire was fully extinguished,” said Penson.
“There was a large load of pine needles in the bin that were smouldering and burning. Once it was fully wet-down, the load was taken off-site by our contractor so we could spread it out and ensure there were no hot spots.”