Smoke billowed out of the mounds of buried waste for weeks as state and local authorities struggled to figure out who had jurisdiction to put out the fire, eventually calling on the Environmental Protection Agency. Early on, local firefighters and the Alabama Forestry Commission tried to squelch the flames, but they were unsuccessful because the fire was largely underground. It's not known how the fire started at the privately owned landfill, which operates under the name Environmental Landfill Inc. Some days, depending on the wind's direction, people 20 miles away in Birmingham reported smelling the emissions. "It looked like a sunset from the colors of the fire and the smoke in the air and the vast area of it," Cash recalled as he prepared for his shift at the nearby Waffle House.įor almost two months after that night, homes near the landfill were inundated with smoke and fumes. Daniel Cash, who lives down the street from the landfill, said the smoke and flames had spread so high that a colorful haze filled the sky. The landfill, which makes up more than 13 acres, initially sent flames above the tree line and blanketed the area in smoke. Clair County, Ala., had just ignited - and it wouldn't stop burning for months. The acrid burning smell wasn't coming from Harmon's home. "I actually thought the house was on fire," Harmon recalled. The smell started seeping into Krissy Harmon's home late at night the weekend after Thanksgiving.
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