This Article is From Feb 04, 2016

After Seven Days of Firefighting In Mumbai's Deonar, It's Still Not Over

Government schools in central Mumbai's Shivaji Nagar and Deonar were closed for over two days due to thick smog caused by a fire.

Mumbai: A massive fire at Mumbai's dumping ground in Deonar, brought under control after seven days of round-the-clock fire-fighting, flared up in pockets again today, but officials said these would be doused soon.

Here are the 10 latest developments in this story:

  1. Six fire engines and six water tankers fought today's fires. At any given time since Thursday, when the fire began, there have been 12 to 18 fire engines stationed at Deonar to douse the flames.

  2. Mumbai's chief fire officer Prabhat Rahangdale today said with the main fire is now doused and a cooling process is on for most part across the dumping ground.

  3. The dumping ground has hundreds of acres covered with garbage and the combustible methane it has led to is causing smaller fires in pockets. Since fire-fighting equipment is already deployed these are being controlled faster, Mr Rahangdale said.

  4. It is the smoke from the fire that has Central Mumbai worried and some residents up in arms, as it adds to the smog hanging low over the city.

  5. Residents have staged protests demanding to know what the municipal authorities are doing about the toxic air that the fire and smoke have caused. 

  6. The Air Quality of Mumbai was worse than in Delhi, the world's most polluted capital, in the days after the fire began. The city's air quality remains in the very poor category.

  7. Images taken by NASA's satellites last week showed how a plume of smoke from the fire covered not only the island city, but spread deeper into the Arabian Sea and had also affected coastal areas of Maharashtra in Raigad district.

  8. Government schools in central Mumbai's Shivaji Nagar and Deonar were closed for over two days due to thick smog caused by a fire.

  9. There were reports of the old and infirm being hospitalised.

  10. Experts have blamed the lack of a solid waste management policy and crammed dumping yards in Mumbai's municipalities for the Deonar fire.



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