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TFD: Significant progress made on landfill fire

Multiple agencies working landfill fire
Posted at 7:11 AM, Dec 31, 2017
and last updated 2018-01-01 14:47:49-05

Multiple agencies were on the scene of a landfill fire Sunday morning near Houghton and Drexel.

Tucson Fire Department, Davis Monthan, and Rural Metro Fire began working the fire at 3:00 a.m.

According to Andy Skaggs with TFD, significant progress has been made on the fire in the last 24 hours, but the fire continues to smolder with flare-ups and wind shifts.

The area burning is approximately the size of 2 football fields with debris piles 8-10 feet deep. The fire is burning and smoldering deep in the tunnels of the debris pile, areas firefighters cannot get to, Skaggs said.

TFD is using heavy equipment today to expose the areas with the most heat and they are hopeful that the fire will be out in the next day. 

Skaggs says that the smoke has decreased since yesterday and will continue to decrease.

The air quality should be better today and will continue to get better as firefighters make progress over the next day or two.

Residents in the area are being told to stay indoors.