Last night, the Escambia County Public Information office sent out this announcement:
Escambia County Waste Services, Environmental Code Enforcement, Public Safety, Fire Rescue and the Florida Forest Service are responding to a fire at the Rolling Hills Landfill located at 6990 Rolling Hills Road. Emergency communications received a called at 5:28 p.m. reporting a fire in the general location of the closed landfill.
After investigating, the source of the fire is estimated to have impacted five acres in a large mound of land clearing debris located in the southeast area of the property designated for land clearing debris disposal. The fire is not in the C&D area of the landfill currently being remediated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The fire appears to be contained. It currently poses no risk to surrounding homes beyond the nuisance smoke. Because the fire is not in the C&D area of the landfill, the hydrogen sulfide gas levels, or H2S, in the Wedgewood Community should not be impacted by the fire. Residents can view values of the gas online at http://myescambia.com/community/air-quality-monitoring.
Since revoking Rolling Hills Landfill’s permit in 2014, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was able to get court approval to close the landfill. Working with state contractors, surveyors and landfill closure experts, they developed a comprehensive closure design based on current site conditions and the contractor began work in the fall of 2016. A vast majority of the onsite work has been completed. However, weather has caused some delays and the project is expected to be completed at the end of this month.