Fire at Wellington waste facility extinguished before it could worsen

A fire at a waste facility in Wellington, P.E.I., on Saturday could have been much worse than it turned out to be.

A number of P.E.I. fire departments helped put out the fire before it could spread into a forested area. The blaze was extinguished by the evening.

Desmond Arsenault, a spokesperson for the Wellington Fire Department, said firefighters arrived at the scene around 2:30 p.m. AT.

Arsenault said fire crews arrived to find a pile of garbage on fire and the wind pushing the flames toward a grassy area.

"It was big flames, and like high flames on the actual garbage pile, and … the wind pushed the flames to the grass and it was very hard to keep up," he said.

He said just as firefighters got one area under control the flames spread to another.

Wellington called for support as the fire spread.

"We're very fortunate we have a well-organized mutual-aid system, so we had departments from Kensington, Summerside, Miscouche, Tyne Valley, O' Leary and even West Point was there to help us out," Arsenault said.

Close call

Arsenault said the fire got to within 20 metres of some nearby woods. "If it would have caught in there it would have been quite devastating," he said. "We would still be there now, I'm sure."

There were no injuries, but some firefighters were checked out for smoke inhalation.

"It was very minor," Arsenault said. "Nobody went to the hospital, so it was very fortunate."

There was no property damage.

Arsenault said the cause of the fire is under investigation, but it won't be easy to find the origin of the fire because crews used so much dirt to put it out.