Chester landfill fire still burning, but contained

Firefighters are no longer actively battling the fire in the Bennett Landfill in Chester County, where the blaze has been contained but is still burning deep in a mound of debris.

Dozens of firefighters from Chester and surrounding counties battled the fire for almost a week after it erupted Nov. 2 in a landfill off S.C. 49, directly across the Broad River from the town of Lockhart. On Thursday, they discovered a seam of trash burning underground within the mound, which created an even bigger challenge to those trying to put out the fire.

By Saturday night, crews had brought the fire under control, said Eddie Murphy, Chester County’s Emergency Management Director. While the fire is still burning inside the tunnel, he said monitoring shows no heat sources on the surface.

“You can see multiple puffs of smoke, like it’s gasping for air,” Murphy said.

Crews have moved out of the area, but the Environmental Protection Agency will continue to monitor the fire in case it begins emitting any dangerous contaminants, or if the fire again starts burning out of control.

“It would only take one ember for it to start back up,” Murphy said.

Firefighters fought the fire around the clock for six days, and the energy needed to combat the flames took its toll. A fire hose was damaged, and several sets of firefighter turnout gear might need to be replaced. One firetruck also was placed in the shop after doing its part to put out the fire.

“This wore out the county and a lot of the upper part of the state,” Murphy said.

Officials noted last week that similar landfill fires around the country have burned for years. Murphy even said officials couldn’t estimate whether the underground fire had been burning for “two weeks or two years” before firefighters were alerted.

Bulldozers were deployed to help unearth and extinguish the debris, but the initial cause of the fire was not identified.

This story was originally published November 10, 2014 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Chester landfill fire still burning, but contained."