Health Advisory Issued, Fire Continues At Rolling Hills Landfill

February 18, 2017

The Florida Department of Health in Escambia County(FDOH-Escambia) is issuing an air quality health advisory in response to associated smoke from fire at Rolling Hills Construction and Demolition Landfill.

Air quality monitoring has been performed by the Escambia County Natural Resources Management Department near the facility at 6990 Rolling Hills Road, Pensacola, FL. The monitoring has revealed elevated levels of small particulate matter in the air likely associated with smoke from the fire.Nearby residents are advised to protect against smoke exposure.

Smoke is a respiratory irritant that can cause scratchy throat or irritated eyes and nose.

According to the CDC, breathing in smoke can have immediate health effects, including coughing, difficulty breathing, scratchy throat, irritated eyes and nose, shortness of breath, and rapid heartbeat. Persons experiencing respiratory symptoms, including those with severe or chronic respiratory conditions like asthma or chronic lung disease, should consult their doctor for treatment and stay inside their homes. While inside, residents should close windows, run their cooling or heating system, and change the system’s air filter as needed. If symptoms persist while inside an air conditioned home, residents may choose to leave the area until their symptoms are tolerable.

Escambia County has mobilized work crews from Waste Services, Public Safety and the Road Department to address the ongoing fire at the Rolling Hills Landfill, located at 6990 Rolling Hills Road. The county successfully worked through issues with the property owner, South Palafox Properties, and at approximately 12:30 Friday afternoon entered the landfill. South Palafox Properties agreed that it was unable to provide the necessary resources to extinguish the fire and will be invoiced for the mobilization of county resources.

Three firefighting brush trucks along with bulldozers and dump trucks are working to first bring down the smoke and then use dirt to smother the fire. Crews will be on scene daily until sunset until the fire is extinguished.

The fire is in a large mound of land clearing debris located in the southeast area of the property designated for land clearing debris disposal. The fire is not in the C&D area of the landfill currently being remediated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Since revoking Rolling Hills Landfill’s permit in 2014, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was able to get court approval to close the landfill. Working with state contractors, surveyors and landfill closure experts, FDEP developed a comprehensive closure design based on current site conditions, and the contractor began work in the fall of 2016. A vast majority of the onsite work has been completed. However, weather has caused some delays, and the project is expected to be completed at the end of this month.

Comments

3 Responses to “Health Advisory Issued, Fire Continues At Rolling Hills Landfill”

  1. molino victim on February 19th, 2017 11:34 pm

    I have to breathe smoke from plastics and other cancer causing garbage fires people burning garbage at night and in the daytime all illegal they r too cheap to have garbage pick-up much less recycling pick=up at their houses like most people . they don’t seem to care that the wind blows the toxic smoke toward their neighbors houses . I can’t invite anyone to visit outside or open my windows . My electric bills could be much lower. you think when you move out of the cities the air should be cleaner. not so people don’t burn in Pensacola. everyone should have garbage service . If you burn it is only vegetation and fire has to be out by dark, Please be a good neighbor.

  2. JOHN D BODIE on February 18th, 2017 10:32 pm

    Just wondering, a man digs a hole charges folks to dump,makes a pile of money. Then the County shuts him down, spends a pile of tax dollars to take care of the mess the man made, the same man goes to a new site in the county and digs a new hole, makes more money. The county sooner or later says, isn’t this site with the artificial turf pretty and nice and calls it a win for the county, Lol

  3. Willis on February 18th, 2017 3:57 pm

    Sounds like an anti smoking campaign.

    Glad my tax dollars are available to work on this.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News