Underground Fire Threatens To Burn Nuclear Waste Site in St. Louis

It may sound absurd at first glance, but underground fires are a real thing, and they’re not uncommon in landfills and coal mines. They also present a tricky situation for firefighters, since traditional methods of fire suppression are useless. This often causes these conflagrations to burn unimpeded for years.

St. Louis happens to have one of these fires burning within their city limits. One of their landfills has been smoldering for the past 5 years, and all efforts to stop it have been in vain. But what makes this incident unique, is that the fire is now a quarter-mile away from a nuclear waste dump. The radioactive materials are leftovers from the Manhattan Project, which were illegally dumped there in the early 1970’s. Most of the people living around the site are understandably outraged, since they had no idea the radioactive waste was even there until recently.

State and federal officials are at odds with each other in regards to how dangerous this situation may be for local residents. St. Louis County officials have warned that there may be a radioactive plume that will force residents to take shelter or evacuate, but the EPA thinks there will only be “a bit of radon gas” and have said that they don’t think the fire is moving towards the radioactive dump.

A word of warning to the citizens of St. Louis, when the EPA tells you that everything is hunky dory, you should probably start running.