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Tonya Papanikolas reportingA huge fire burned Sunday at a private landfill in Ogden. The thick black smoke from the fire was visible all the way from Salt Lake.
Cat Ropelato: "It's kind of scary I thought maybe it was a roadside fire or maybe someone threw a cigarette out and caused the fire"
The landfill is used as a dumping ground for construction debris.
The fire started this afternoon. People calling in the fire initially thought it was a structure fire.
Cat Ropelato: "Big black smoke billowing up into the air. And as I was driving up 12th Street, I could actually see the flames."
Larry Jensen: "There was quite a few people around the park looking, wondering what it was. It was pretty black."
The fire department initially had a difficult time fighting the blaze. The smoke was so thick that firefighters were having difficulty seeing the areas that needed water. Firefighters had to stay at least 400 feet back.
The fire started in an area that had tires and pallets. The blaze was over 400 feet wide when they arrived. The captain of the fire department says the fire possibly started due to spontaneous combustion.
Capt. Dave Nielsen, Weber County Fire Dept. : "It's usually spontaneous combustion, or somebody dropped a cigarette on a pile of construction debris, brings it out here, and it might smolder. It's pretty hard to see, but I don't see anything intentional at all.
Firefighters set up fire lines behind and in front of the blaze. They also brought in a couple 4000 gallon water tankers for support.
Once firefighters were able to get the smoke under control, they were able to move in closer, and spray right into the landfill. The owner of the landfill helped out the effort by using a bulldozer to cover areas of the fire with dirt.
The fire is out now, but officials will be monitoring the area to make sure it does not flare up in the coming days.
