Late Thursday afternoon, firefighters from the St. John’s Fire Station responded to a fire at Cooks Garbage Disposal Dump.

However, they could not attend to the blaze due to the nature of the fire. The fire was among discarded vehicular tyres, rendering their equipment useless.

As a result, they had to resort to other means to reduce the spread of the fire, contain it, and eventually extinguish it.

The National Solid Waste Management Authority reported that they had to call upon their partners at Public Works and CHAPA to bring along some heavy-duty equipment to help extinguish the fire.

They decided to reduce its spread and to cut off oxygen support by burying it with soil.

Soil dug from around the area was used, and other agencies brought additional soil to pour on the fire.

NSWMA Chairman Michael Joseph said while at the scene on Thursday evening that the operation to extinguish the fire went into the night with several agencies involved.

The call was received at the station at 4:45 pm, marking it as the 371st fire call of the year.

The fire was extinguished that same day, reducing the risk to incoming flights to the VC Bird International Airport, as it is considered within the flight path to the airport.