Published 9:40 am Monday, July 20, 2026 By Jill Westerman Northern News Services It took 14 firefighters, hamlet public works crews, heavy equipment operators, more than 400 dump truck loads of sand from Inukshuk Construction, and assistance from Agnico Eagle Mines to bring the Rankin Inlet landfill fire under control after it burned for close to 10 days. While the surface fire has now been extinguished, Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt said residents may continue to see wisps of smoke and occasionally smell smoke for weeks because of fires burning deep beneath the landfill. “It’s technically out,” Wyatt said. “You’re still going to see smoke on occasion because this type of dump is filled with virtually everything. There’s no recycling program here at all.” The fire chief said the landfill has been built up over decades by compacting layers of waste, creating underground voids where fires can continue to smoulder. “The surface fire is out,” he said. “What’s burning underneath is part of what’s been burning underneath for probably the last several years.” He said it’s not unusual to see smoke rising from the landfill, even during the middle of winter. “We will see smoke even in the middle of winter coming up from the dump. Small wisps of smoke.” Loads of help The effort to extinguish the fire required more than 400 dump truck loads of sand, which were spread across nearly the entire landfill to smother the flames by cutting off the oxygen supply, Wyatt said. The fire department also spent five days fighting the blaze with water, but the effort was hampered by the lack of a permanent water supply at the landfill. “We don’t have any hydrants or anything like that,” Wyatt said. “It’s basically spraying water for two or three minutes and waiting for the water truck to come and fill it up again.” Around the ninth day of the fire, Agnico Eagle Mines was brought in to help establish a continuous water supply by pumping ocean water through approximately one kilometre of six-inch pipe to the landfill. “We were able to maintain a continuous water supply for about a day and a half, and that really knocked it down significantly,” Wyatt said. “That, combined with the hamlet spreading the sand, we have achieved what I would concur to be the fire’s out. “If there’s a little bit of smoke blowing, you’re going to smell it even if you don’t see it,” he added. Wyatt estimated the landfill is between 50 and 70 feet deep, although it could be deeper because of decades of compacted waste. “I would say that dump, packed over the years, is probably at least 50 to 70 feet (15 to 21 metres) deep,” he said. “It’s all very compressed, but things still do burn.” He said that burying the landfill under several feet of sand helps prevent oxygen from reaching underground hot spots. Wyatt praised everyone involved in the fire response. “I would thank the hard work of all of our firefighters that have shown up in the middle of the night,” he said. “It’s been a lot of work for not a lot of people.” He also recognized the efforts of the hamlet’s public works department. “They’ve been tirelessly working on the dump,” he said. “A lot of work went into this, and it’s out now, and hopefully it stays out for a while.” Unknown origin The cause of the fire remains under investigation and will likely be classified as suspicious because investigators have been unable to determine exactly how it started. Wyatt said landfill fires can ignite for a variety of reasons, including spontaneous combustion, sunlight refracting through glass, batteries or other combustible materials. He also acknowledged that, in some cases, fires are deliberately set. “Oftentimes, it’s people that are bored and have nothing to do and figure, Let’s throw a little bit of gas on it and start a fire,” he said. He noted that Rankin Inlet has experienced at least one landfill fire almost every year during his nearly 11 years in the community. Wyatt said the fire department has strengthened its mutual aid relationship with Agnico Eagle Mines, which should allow crews to respond quicker if another major landfill fire occurs. “But when nothing is recycled, and there’s so many things that go into your garbage that burns, there’s really not much you can do about it,” he said.
More than 400 truckloads of sand help extinguish Rankin Inlet dump fire after 10-day battle
