The Department of Environmental Protection has issued an air quality alert for today and Friday for the Midcoast and interior areas of eastern Maine.
Winds are dispersing smoke from a large trash fire in Orrington that began on Tuesday night. The DEP said particle pollution in the smoke could be unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as children, the elderly and people with respiratory or heart problems. Healthy individuals who are engaged in strenuous activity outside may also be affected.
The DEP recommends that individuals in the areas covered by the alert avoid strenuous outdoor activity, close windows and, if asthmatic, keep quick-relief medications on hand. A map and more information on the air quality forecast is available here.
The fire started on Tuesday inside a trash incinerator plant formerly operated by the Penobscot Energy Recover Company. The PERC plant ceased operations in May 2023 but an estimated 8,000 tons of trash were left behind.
The new owners, Eagle Point Energy Center, had hoped to restart the facility next year and were in the process of obtaining DEP permits.
Firefighters from Orrington and nearby towns kept the blaze contained to a single building. But with so much trash inside, DEP officials said Thursday that they expect the fire to continue to burn for at least one more day.
Orrington Fire Chief Scott Stewart said Wednesday evening that, because of the conditions inside and concerns about the structure, crews were fighting the fire from the outside while using the building's fire suppression system. This is just the latest fire at the facility, which was a major receiving point for municipal trash for the region before it shut down.
"The tendencies of a trash pile fire is that you knock it down from the outside but it's still burning on the inside and it flares back up," Stewart said. "You kind of do this game of chess with it. We will get to a point where it is safe enough for the crews and the plant will get a contractor in here to safely extinguish that fire."
