Fox Hill residents learned the hard way to take better care of their community as a fire that broke out in an illegal garbage dump raged out of control.
The dump, located on Gray’s Terrace, near Canon Pugh Estates, was the result of indiscriminate dumping in a pit that had been dug to mine quarry for the New Providence Road Improvement Project under the Ingraham Administration.
In other words, it had been there for nearly two years and nobody thought of dealing with the problem.
Instead, the people of Fox Hill allowed little children to play at the dump site. It was those kids who may have started the blaze which eventually got out of control.
“What kind of idiots let their kids play in a garbage dump,” one former resident asked.
It ended up taking three fire trucks, three 5,000 gallon water trucks and one pay-loader to put out the fire.
MP Fred Mitchell, who apparently spends so much time abroad that he doesn’t have time to tend to the affairs of his constituency, didn’t explain why he never addressed the fact that an illegal garbage dump was allowed to fester for so long.
Mitchell and the ever-incompetent Environment Minister Ken Dorsett were at the scene of the fire last night to stand around looking important, but neither could explain why they hadn’t acted on this problem earlier.
However, Mitchell did say that once the fire was extinguished, the owners of the property must take proper possession of it and stop the indiscriminate dumping that has occurred. DUH!
If Mitchell weren’t so busy cavorting around the globe, perhaps he would have addressed this matter before his constituents had to choke on burning garbage.
Minister Dorsett nodded his head in agreement, like a bobblehead in the back of a car, admitting that the fire was causing considerable smoke inhalation problems for residents. But he also failed to address the problem until it was out-of-control.
It is not clear if the owner of the property will be fined, or made to pay for the cost of putting out the fire at the illegal dump.
Probably not.
