Heavy machinery reaches the fires of the Zaldibar landfill



The machines have arrived this Saturday in the area of ​​fires among the waste of the Zaldibar landfill (Bizkaia), so that today they will begin to land to extinguish these fires, the technical table coordinator, Txus Peña, has advanced.

The landfill collapsed on February 6, trapping two workers, who have not been found. In addition, the combustion of methane among the waste in the upper part of the landfill has caused several fires, the origin of dioxins in the air that led last night to recommend to the residents of three municipalities in the area (Zaldibar, Ermua and Eibar, which add 48,000 inhabitants) to close the windows and do not do sports.

The technical commission of coordination of the detachment of the landfill has met this Saturday, as every day, in the town hall of this town. He has attended the beginning, for half an hour, the lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, to convey his support.

At the end of the meeting, the members of the meeting have explained the situation: the novelty is that the accesses have ended, on the lands of the collapse, to the upper part of the landslide where the fires are, which affect "a slope of the bottom from the landfill of more than twenty meters, hence the difficulty of access, "they have detailed.

Heavy machinery (excavators and an arm of 23 meters) is already moving towards the area, at the moment without problems, although with great caution, since they pass through an unstable area. "We hope to extinguish the fire with earth in the next few days," said Deputy Minister Elena Moreno. Last week it was tried with water from helicopters, without good results.

The fire has gone down in the past few days, but it is the cause of the smoke with dioxins and furans, and therefore it was recommended last night the closing of windows and not doing outdoor sports in the area.

The analyzes that have detected the dioxins have taken five days - the samples were sent on day 9 - because the air has been analyzed in a laboratory in Madrid with a method that takes four days.

"If we had thought that we were going to meet these levels of dioxins, obviously we would have taken action before," explained Txus Peña.

The doctors present have explained that the risk from exposure to dioxins "is low. It takes a lot of exposure time to create serious danger," they have detailed.

"Citizens have perceived the smells, but that does not entail risks, apart from the inconvenience. With the current levels, we do not foresee any type of symptomatology or concrete disease. It is a long-term risk factor, but, as the fire is still there and it has not gone out, that's why the recommendation is made, "the doctors insisted.

Regarding the rescue of the bodies of the two workers, work continues "at a good pace", but there is no more news. The work consists of stabilizing the land to be able to access an area where it is suspected that the two disappeared, Joaquín and Alberto.

Asked by the Eibar-Real Sociedad Sunday game, the Deputy Minister of Health, Iñaki Berraondo, has reiterated that they have made a recommendation not to play sports, but they should be the competent institutions, such as the Professional Football League and the Federation, They decide on the match.

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