DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - A massive weekend fire is still active for a second night in a row at the Covanta Energy Plant facility.
From night to day smoke continues to fill the air.
“We are down to basically two buildings that are currently are on fire,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief, Ray Jadallah.
Cecilia Hernandez said she and her coworkers couldn’t even go into work at a nearby office because the smoke was too strong.
“We couldn’t breath,” said Hernandez. “Everybody started coughing and we said no we can’t work like that.”
Crews said they are dealing with approximately two football fields worth of burning debris.
“This is going to be a long-term fire, multi-operational period, we’re looking at several days,” said Chief Jadallah.
The accident happened on Sunday in the area of 6990 NW 97th Ave., at around 2:20 p.m., Sunday.
Hot spots persisted in Doral at Miami-Dade County’s resources recovery facility, the plant used to turn waste into energy.
“One building has two walls that are starting to cave in, preventing us from accessing the building. The second building we have no access to get fire trucks or hose lines as a result of the warping metal and the imminent collapse,” said Chief Jadallah.
“We saw a big cloud of smoke coming out and we saw the fire trucks just rushing in,” said a man.
Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze into the night and the next day.
Nestor Perez with Earth Justice said his nonprofit environmental law organization has been asking the county to shut down the facility for over a year.
“It shows that it has to go,” Perez said.
“There is other ways to manage waste that is not landfilling and is not incineration,” Perez said.
Accidental incineration of the whole operation is what happened Sunday after investigators said a conveyor belt moved the fire from building to building.
This spot will not be accepting loads of trash, which will create another challenge for the county.
“Our department of solid waste has already worked to reroute the trash collection that would have been previously delivered to this site, so you should experience no delays in your trash pickup,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
The county has been monitoring the air quality, and officials said so far that there’s no problem.
There have been no reported injuries.
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