WARREN Officials plan to extinguish fire at WRI

A fire was detected in the same area earlier this week.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Officials at the company that manages a Martin Luther King Avenue landfill plan to pump waste water into the landfill to extinguish a fire.
In February, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials detected a fire in one of the mounds at Warren Recycling Inc.
Crews from Warren Hills, the company that manages the landfill, piled dirt onto the area to smother the fire.
An OEPA inspection the next month found no evidence of fire by sight or odor, but a fire was detected in the same area earlier this week, said Mayor Hank Angelo.
"We want residents of the area to know, there is no imminent danger," Angelo said, adding that safety personnel are involved in the project.
The company is working with the city fire department.
"The situation is being monitored every hour," Angelo said.
What's planned
Weather permitting, the company will dig a trench at the landfill and pump wastewater from the facility into the mound to extinguish the fire.
The water then will flow out of the bottom of the mound, said Jack Stacy of Warren Hills.
Angelo estimated the project would take 48 hours to complete.
"They're following EPA directives," he said.
Kara Allison of the EPA said this morning the company was cited Monday regarding the fire. She said it does not need state approval on fire-fighting plans; it is responsible for extinguishing fires.
Debbie Roth, leader of the citizens group Our Lives Count, said she never believed the fire had been extinguished.
"I'll be relieved when I know it's out," she said.
Stacy said the company also has bought a compactor to pack material before it's put in the construction and demolition debris landfill.
"It should mean we have fewer pore spaces and less opportunity for spontaneous combustion," Stacy said.
Bob Pinti, the city's deputy health commissioner, and Fire Chief Ken Nussle plan to meet with Warren township officials today, Angelo said.