KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A fire at a sprawling trash dump in Jamaica is blanked swaths of the island’s seaside capital with foul-smelling gray smoke.
The island’s emergency management office says the fire brigade has dispatched seven water trucks to the Riverton City solid waste dump on the outskirts of Kingston. The fire started early Sunday.
Officials are warning people to stay indoors as much as possible to avoid exposure to the billowing smoke and pollutants.
Environmentalists say there has been virtually no control over what is unloaded at the dump so all manner of industrial and commercial waste burns when the dump catches fire. Two years ago, a blaze burned at the dump for nearly a week.
Shantytowns ring the open-air landfill, and government housing complexes and middle class neighborhoods are situated nearby.
