El Nacional 27 fire brigades from around the Dominican Republic have been working since last Thursday, 30 April 2020, days working to extinguish the fire at the Duquesa garbage dump. The fires have caused a dense smog to envelop Greater Santo Domingo.
As of Tuesday, 5 May, the fire was said to be controlled, only to rev up again and send smog to cover the capital city and beyond that evening. The fire has been such that fire brigades from as far as El Seibo and Veron (Punta Cana) were incorporated in the task. The fire was attacked by building access roads to separate the areas under the blaze from others where the fire had not yet reached.
As reported in El Nacional, in addition to the fire brigades from around the country, crews from the Ministry of Public Works, the 911 Emergency Service, the Santo Domingo Water Corporation (Caasd) were sent.
Minister of Public Works, engineer Ramon Pepin, said on Tuesday morning that the flames of the fire are controlled by 60% and the smoke by 40%.
The head of the National District fire department, José Luis Frómeta Herasme, said that drones with infrared cameras were used to detect from the air burning embers to tell where the fire continues. A business coalition donated the technology. He explained that the technology helped identify areas where there was the greatest concentration of heat and smoke to which the firefighters and heavy equipment did not have ready access. Then tractors were used to build access roads to these points.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Ministry of Public Works said the fire was 80% controlled.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
El Nacional
Listin Diario
6 May 2020