Firefighters Letting Landfill Fire Burn Itself Out

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BURKE COUNTY, NC — A landfill on fire in Morganton is expected to take several days to burn itself out.  It took seven fire departments two hours to contain the blaze at the Burke County landfill on Marsh Trail.

The Fire Marshal says spontaneous combustion likely sparked the fire just before nine o’clock Wednesday morning.  Firefighters have set up a perimeter to keep the fire from growing.

“It’s such a large size and amount of debris that there’s no way we can extinguish it at this point. We’re just kind of containing it to where it’s at and we’re gonna let it burn itself out at this point,” said Chief Dean Harmon of the Chesterfield Fire Department.

One firefighter had to be treated for exhaustion.  A couple of fire departments are still monitoring the scene to make sure the fire doesn’t get out of control.