Blaze in Siberia seen from space and will burn for years

World's largest sawdust dump is on fire 'and will burn for years'

Siberian Times,

25 July 2016

Greenpeace concern as firefighters say they cannot extinguish 3 year blaze with smoke visible from space.

A satellite photo taken in June 2016. Picture: LandSat, Greenpeace

The mountain of sawdust is the size of more than 800 Olympic swimming pools at a site in the Ust-Kutsky district of Irkutsk region. A council spokesman said: 'It is now impossible to extinguish dump with such an amount of sawdust. 

'Obviously, it will keep burning for a few more years.'

It has remained aflame winter and summer for around three years - and is seen on the video below. 

Greenpeace say the sawdust dump is the largest of its kind in the world, and the campaign group has raised concerns over the smoke pollution from the site. 

Already there is more than two million cubic metres of waste dumped here, reported to be waste from the Trans-Siberian Forest Company. Every day 15 new trucks arrive, each carrying around 70 cubic metres of sawdust. 

The site of the endless fire is 10.4 hectares in size or 1.1 million square feet. 

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The company has taken measures to prevent the spread of the  smoldering flames, with a mineral border line around the dump and  firefighting equipment on permanent standby.

Alexander Yaroshenko, head of the Forestry Programme of Greenpeace Russia, said:'Over the past three years this fire has caused dangerous smoke to Ust-Kut and nearby settlements multiple times, with overall population of about 50,000 people.

'That is an emergency situation of at least regional scale.' 

Measurements taken by state watchdog Rospotrebnadzor show that the dump fire did not cause changes to concentration of carbon dioxide in the air near the dump on days when Ust-Kut was covered with smoke, say reports. 

The area has been hit recently by wildfire smoke, too. 

Pictures show the sawdust dump in Ust-Kut region now and in winter 2016, satellite picture taken in February this year. Pictures: Irkutsk Region Ministry for Emergencies, LandSat/Greenpeace

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