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Extinguishing teams have managed to extinguish the fronts of the fire at the Zaldibar landfill (Bizkaia) on Tuesday , where smoking spots are expected to disappear completely throughout the day, although a stop will remain in the area to prevent the fire can reproduce

Lehendakari Urkullu himself has informed in his intervention in the Permanent Deputation that the fire had "suffocated", but that the smoke continued.

Already after the meeting of the crisis table in Zaldibar, the general director of the Basque Water Agency (URA), Ernesto Martínez Cabredo , has reported that the most important fronts of the fire were "defeated" last night, and that throughout the day the smoke will disappear in the area. However, he has been more cautious than the lehendakari to ensure that embers and embers could reproduce the fire.

The extinction of the fire, which had caused levels of furans and dioxins that could be harmful in the nearby municipalities of the region (Zaldibar, Ermua and Eibar, which total 46,000 inhabitants), will facilitate the search tasks of the two missing workers, Joaquín Solaluce and Alberto Beltrán , in the detachment of thousands of tons of waste that occurred on February 6.

Zaldibar landfill containment break

" A work stop will remain vigilant with the necessary means so that if any point smokes more than it should go out . Today in the afternoon we can see that there is no smoke," Martínez Cabredo said in an appearance before the media after the meeting of the technical monitoring table on the detachment of the Zaldibar landfill.

Jesús Peña, general secretary of the Presidency of the Basque Government, has affirmed that the extinction of the fire will have an "immediate effect" on the emission of harmful components to the atmosphere, which will directly affect the air quality.

Last Friday it was learned that the analyzes had detected dioxins and furans in the air in proportions forty times higher than normal, as a result of the fire from the combustion of methane in the upper part of the landfill, so the Basque Government recommended neighbors of the three mentioned municipalities that closed the windows and did not do outdoor sports.

However, the Basque Government does not plan to change the recommendations on air quality for the neighbors of the region until next Thursday the results of the latest air samples are known, with special attention to the parameters on furans and dioxins .

Precisely regarding the measures to be taken in order to protect the population, the CSIC expert, Begoña Jiménez , who has participated in the meeting of the table, has considered that an " exaggerated and perhaps unnecessary alarm " is being generated, because the Toxin levels are "enormously low."

In this regard, he said that the recommended measures, such as closing windows and not practicing outdoor sports "are timely and reasonable" to minimize exposure, but believes that they have meant "the opposite effect", `because the situation is not for generate almarma " You have to be careful with fear, " he said.

In this sense, this expert wanted to send a "reassuring message", because the dioxin level is above normal, but at low levels.

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  • Basque Country
  • Environment
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