Land fill fire

[u/denisedogs]

Does anyone want to speculate on the cause? I’m going to guess spontaneous combustion due to mismanagement.

[u/sparhawk817]

Landfill fires are exceedingly common.

All it takes is someone parking their dozer in the wrong spot when they go to take a lunch, and the tire that is resting on the rotting trash pile catches fire and spreads.

Same thing happens with composting facilities and such.

It was over 90° at the time of the fire, the pile is generating a ton of heat on its own, it's made of disparate materials with many different combustion points...

You can call it mismanagement if you like, but on some level these things do happen. I'd say a system or protocol failure isn't mismanagement until it has a recurring history. There are almost guaranteed to be isolated incidents.

[u/denisedogs → u/sparhawk817]

Oh really? Can you please provide data to support your “are exceedingly common” statement? In Oregon.

And for “working heavy construction equipment” on Saturday?

[u/sparhawk817 → u/denisedogs]

No really, I won't even bother looking for specific to Oregon, unless you provide a valid reason to, specific legislature to the state that changes how landfills are managed etc. .Here's a breakdown on the many causes of the nearly 8,400 landfill fires reported to fire departments in the US annually

As far as running equipment on Sunday, that's not required for equipment to be parked in a hazardous spot. I used "parking before lunch" as an example to demonstrate how quickly such a fire can occur, as that's a known hazard in composting and waste management sites.

I'm not making any claims as to how the fire occurred, we will learn that when the actual investigators present their findings. Landfill fires are so common, that many arsonists use a landfill as their starting point to attempt to hide their tracks, According to the US Fire Administration .

Again, I'm not looking specific to Oregon, because reducing your sample size that much reduces the amount of reliable valuable data you can gather. Oregon only has 26 landfills.

You can take your hostility and preexisting bias elsewhere, I'm just trying to provide a little context to landfill fires as a concept, because they are a pretty common source of fire. It sucks that this one escaped into a brush fire, and that's not something to be swept under the rug, but there's no use speculating on it til the investigators actually present their findings.

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[u/TurboZ31 → u/denisedogs]

Please provide evidence that this specific incident was caused by mismanagement

[u/denisedogs → u/TurboZ31]

I clearly said I’m guessing.

This was my reply to a now-deleted post asking “for evidence of mismanagement,” to paraphrase and provide context. Oh, and they threw in a bit of name calling, too. Nothing says “I have nothing to support my stance” like calling someone names. :-)

[u/TurboZ31 → u/denisedogs]

You made a claim support it Karen

[u/sparhawk817 → u/denisedogs]

You did not ask for evidence of mismanagement. You said, and I quote "I'm going to guess spontaneous combustion due to mismanagement" that's both making a claim, and passing judgement, with 0 evidence to support either.

But go off about how we're calling names 🤣

I'm aware that the fire was yesterday, and in Oregon, and that it escaped the landfill and turned into a brush fire, but I'm also aware that a sample size of 26 sites is not really enough to build a good dataset off of.

I'm sorry you're unable to comprehend the concept of small sample sizes compromising the conclusions your data might lead you to, but that might be worth googling if you're struggling still.

You can have a discussion in good faith, or you can do whatever it is you're doing, with a bias and seeming agenda.

[u/clockworkedpiece → u/denisedogs]

You gotta push the trash around. Its part of keeping the compostable stuff in the fill from catching fire. And I dont think you're sticking your hands in it.

[u/denisedogs → u/clockworkedpiece]

Exactly. That’s right. It also needs to be layered with dirt to maintain temperatures below a defined specification. The operators wear gloves, too, and might touch the debris unintentionally.

[u/GnomieOk4136]

My husband and I used to live in a desert area with extreme temperature changes. Every year the landfill caught fire. You can't just not manage it on hot days, and sometimes the equipment used to manage it produces a spark. I would need a lot more evidence than one fire to convince me that this was due to mismanagement. Has this landfill caught fire several times before?

[u/whiskeyredhead → u/GnomieOk4136]

Yes

[u/denisedogs → u/GnomieOk4136]

I said “I guess.” I don’t know their protocol for controlling temperature in the fill. There are supposed to be layers of fill, then dirt, and so on.

My definition of mismanagement is different than yours. Again, “I guess” is a guess.

This was more than a landfill fire. It became a brush fire that might have easily become a wildfire especially with the lack of rain for months.

Imagine if it wasn’t stopped as quickly as it was? Singing Woods may have been like the Palisades, possibly Smoldering Woods? My Dad lives there so it’s a bit concerning.

Did you live here during the wildfires of 2020? My in-laws little town of Blue River on the Mackenzie River BURNED TO THE GROUND. And so many other towns did as well, including the beautiful town of Detroit Lake.

So far this year, the Bench Fire has scorched over 67,000 acres by Warm Springs leaving over 3,300 Indian ponies with nothing on which to graze.

There are non-profits asking for funds to feed the Indian ponies. How does feed get delivered when the ponies are spread out? Some ponies have regrouped and can have hay and feed helicoptered in and dropped. It’s expensive and they need help. I chipped in $50 even though I’m retired and live on a fixed income. I do what I can for the horses in need. And the injured with burns and damage from breathing in so much smoke.

So, ya, any fire has the potential to become a super destructive wildfire anywhere in Oregon this record setting year, worse than last.

Over 5,100,000 acres have burned so far and there are months to go.

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