Fire crews from four area communities returned on Sunday afternoon to the Waste Management Crossroads Landfill off Mercer Road in Norridgewock to deal with a possible rekindling of a fire that burned there last week.
The new fire was reported around 3 p.m. Sunday. Norridgewock firefighter Aaron Gordon said by phone from the station that Norridgewock sent four trucks to the scene off Airport Road and U.S. Route 2, while one truck each was dispatched from Skowhegan, Madison and Anson.
A Smithfield truck was dispatched to help cover the station.
Gordon said it didn’t appear that Sunday’s fire was as bad as the one last week.
An ambulance from Emergency Medical Services at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan was sent as a precaution, according to communications center dispatch log. Three firefighters were taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon during the initial fire, which sent black-and-white smoke pouring into the area. The firefighters, who suffered from heat stress and smoke inhilation, were treated at the hospital and released.
Landfill district manager Jeff McGown said the initial fire was caused by spontaneous combustion in a small, seldom-used area of the 115-acre landfill.
More white smoke could be seen in a photograph posted Sunday afternoon on Central Maine Facebook Fire Alert.
Capt. Steve Ireland, of the Norridgewock Fire Department, said last week that the fire was extinguished, but a brief flareup occurred around midnight Tuesday into early Wednesday.
Ireland said about 50 firefighters and equipment from seven area communities battled the initial fire for more than two hours Tuesday on an estimated 2.2 acres of landfill.
McGown said the fire last week started in the northeast corner of the landfill, in an area officials call Phase 8. He said the fire started from spontaneous combustion in some wood chips used as a cover product.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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