Sunday night the Clinton County landfill caught fire on the 4200 block of 220th street in Clinton.
Officials say this is the fourth time in five years this has happened. The fire was under control in about 15 minutes, but workers say they were lucky.
Workers tell us the landfill was closed when it caught fire, and no one working at that time to notice.
Eyewitnesses say reaching almost six feet and stretching about 50 yards across the landfill, half a football field long.
A passer by saw the fire and called it in, but Clinton landfill workers say there are simple things citizens can do can prevent this from happening again.
"We had an area that was on fire last night approximately where the black area is in the corner of that landfill cell," Director of Operations Brad Seward says of Sunday night's fire.
He says it's a fire that could've been worse. Employees think it was caused by some hot trash, someone throwing out ashes from a fire that wasn't quite out.
"People had thought it had been extinguished but there may have been a hot ember inside of it and actually re-kindled and caught some nearby paper on fire," he says.
This isn't the first time. Since Seward has worked there, four similar fires have broken out, including one in a landfill lined with tire shreds, just like in Iowa City, where a fire broke out, lasting months.
"Had we not been here, it could've been just as disastrous as the Iowa City landfill fire."
Since then, Seward says they've learned their lesson and stopped using tire shreds to protect the ground from trash seeping in.
"It was a practice accepted at one point in time by the DNR, but the DNR has since backed down from that practice," he says.
Nowadays they're using sand instead, which doesn't burn as easily. Fires are still breaking out, either from burn piles that haven't been put out correctly, or people bringing in flammable liquids like oil-based paint or cleaners.
"There's a combination of not letting us know as well as not taking the steps to make sure the ash is actually out," Seward says.
And with the wind and dry conditions, it's a perfect combination for fire.
"Give it time, don't bring it here, don't put a fire out and in two days expect to bring the ash here," Seward says.
If you're unsure what can and can't go in a landfill, they ask that you call first before pitching it in the trash. You can also check the landfill's website, here's a list of acceptable recyclable items at the Clinton County landfill: http://ccaswa.com/misc.htm
