Carson City Fire Department responded Tuesday night to a fire at the Carson City landfill off of Flint Drive across from Highway 50 East. It is the second fire at the city dump in a week.
The fire was called into dispatch at 7:30 p.m. and was said to be 30 foot by 30 foot in size, according to a battalion chief on scene. No structures are threatened.
There have been numerous fires at the Carson City landfill over the months and years and, as recently as one week ago to the day on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
The root cause of the majority of these fires are rechargeable batteries, according to an operations manager of the Public Works Department in a recent Carson Now story.
“To the best of our knowledge, the primary source of our landfill fires over the last several years has been lithium-ion batteries that are being discarded in the trash,” said Rick Cooley, Operations Manager of the Public Works Department. “When people throw away their rechargeable batteries, such as cordless tools, remote control devices, drones, etc., or devices with rechargeable batteries such as laptops, phones, cameras, etc., they seem harmless. However, when the trash is moved and compacted these batteries get crushed which creates a short circuit and causes the batteries to overheat and, or explode.”
The cause of Tuesday night’s fire is unknown at this time.
