NEEBING – Residents of Hacquoil Road and Boundary Drive have been dealing with smoke from what they report to be burning garbage for roughly a week after a property described as a “notorious mess” was bought and work began to clear up the lot.
“When we found out the place sold, it was kind of like, all right, maybe they're going to get it cleaned up, sounds good. So heard trucks moving, stuff getting pushed around for a couple of days,” said Justin Molkowski, a resident of the area.
“Then about a week ago, all of a sudden, a fire started, and initially it was just kind of like small brush, that kind of a situation. And then you just started to see the black smoke form and it just became more and more intense. Yeah, it was black smoking engulfing the neighborhood for the better part of a week and you just had to take a quick walk by it just to see it was mountains of garbage being lit on fire.”
Molkoski said that things came to a head as he was returning home Saturday night to find what he thought was the entire side of the mountain on fire.
“We went up there and checked it out. It turned out they had lit the house on fire. Burned the house to the ground and still was running a massive garbage fire burning green, burning purple little explosions going off of propane tanks in the background.”
Molkowski and other neighbours tried every avenue they could think of to get some help with the situation but he said that he felt as if every official they spoke to brushed off their concerns.
“Nobody treated it as though anything was going on and it just felt like a complete failure of our system in that situation,” he said.
Neebing’s deputy fire chief said that crews were dispatched to the scene and began to put out the fire but required a specific machine and had to return the next morning to finish extinguishing the fire.
The owner of the property declined to be interviewed, but said that he had permission from the municipality to use fire to help in clearing the property.
Neebing’s deputy fire chief said the fire that burned the structure was legal, but decline to comment on the claims that the property owner was burning garbage throughout the week.
Now that the fire’s out, Molkowski said that he sees no reason for himself to take further action as long as there are no more fires.
“The bottom line was we didn't want an open burning garbage fire right in the middle of a community the whole time. So, as long as the fire is gone and he's going to go through the proper avenues to deal with the rest of the garbage, then we’re satisfied” he said.
“But there should be charges laid, you shouldn't be able to just do that. And I don't understand. Just the boldness to go ahead and do something like that and just expect nothing. There's going to be no ramifications to that kind of a situation, except it's a heck of a precedent to set for everybody.”
