It took a 'small lake' of water to put out the Whitehorse dump fire
'The amount of resources for that event were staggering,' says city official
Fire officials are getting a handle on just how much water it took to extinguish the Whitehorse landfill fire this month.
"Well to sum it up, I would say a small lake," said Chris Green, Whitehorse's deputy fire chief. "And I'm guessing when I say this, but about 500,000 gallons of water would probably be a ballpark figure."
City firefighters and other volunteer fire departments from the territory worked feverishly for five full days and nights after the fire started at the landfill on June 20.
City officials said they pumped treated drinking water onto the blaze until it was contained.
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"That was a lot of water. Very challenging to get it here, because there is no actual water supply [at the dump]," Green said.
"So the water had to be shuttled from neighbouring departments, that helped out supplying water to the site."
Geoff Quinsey, the city's manager of waste and water, said the volume of water used each of those five days was around the same amount it takes to fill the lane pool at the Canada Games Centre.
"The amount of resources for that event were staggering," Quinsey said.
"We're talking about as many as 50 firefighters all working at the same time, multiple fire shuttles of shuttling water from the [Kopper King], multiple pumper trucks, helicopters."
City officials said it's too early to estimate the total costs to fight the fire. The city's finance department is still adding up the bills that are coming in.
Material from an old high school
Green said firefighters had a major concern — material from the recent demolition of the F.H. Collins High School could have provided a lot of fuel for the fire.
"There was a large demolition pile and if that would have ignited, we wouldn't have been able to control it. So that was the most challenging part," said Green.
"So we separated that, using an excavator and putting a trench to divide the fire and the large pile."
Green said contractors were able to move a large amount of flammable construction material away from the main fire.
Another concern was the forest nearby.
"We have about 100 metres between the burning pile and the edge of the treeline and the outside of the waste management facility," said Quinsey.
He said a wildfire could have been a serious emergency.
Quinsey said one saving grace was a recently dug-up pile of dirt from a new waste pit. It was nearby, and firefighters used it to smother the fire under the smoldering debris.
City officials are now satisfied the fire is fully extinguished.
They have been monitoring for carbon monoxide emissions from below the surface and the readings are normal, indicating no burning.
Quinsey said it was a huge team effort from firefighters, Yukon government emergency services, and private contractors.
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