Landfill fire still burning Wednesday

GAINESVILLE - A landfill fire off Monroe Drive in Gainesville, which started Tuesday night, continued to smolder Wednesday.

Gainesville Fire Chief Dick Taylor says the fire is mostly contained to debris that has already been buried. Taylor adds there's no evidence of contamination from the runoff of half-a-milliion gallons of water that was poured on the fire Tuesday night. Taylor added there are containment ponds all around the site, but very little water made it into them. He says the area involved is extensive and most of the water was absorbed into the ground.

Waste Management now uses the site and has been trying to smother the fire with load after load of dirt, according to Taylor.

The fire erupted Tuesday night in a stack of crushed mobile homes that Waste Management had brought to the site.

At the height of the blaze a large plume of smoke could be seen for miles.