State Rep Says South Side San Antonio Tire Dump Would Burn For Nine Months If It Caught Fire

State Rep. John Lujan says he once helped extinguish a tire fire at the abandoned Safe Tire Disposal site.

This week State Rep. John Lujan told state environmental regulators that illegal tire dumping in his south side district has become a public health nightmare and a raging tire fire waiting to happen, urging state action on the matter.

In his letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Tuesday, the San Antonio Republican targeted one tract of south side land that he calls particularly hazardous – the unfortunately-named Safe Tire Disposal site, land that state regulators for years have been trying to scrub and clear of millions of discarded tires.

Lujan says in his letter that earlier this month he toured the tire facility, which was abandoned in 2005, and concluded that with “more than two million illegally discarded scrap tires, this site presents a major health hazard and fire hazard.” The state lawmaker says the tires collect water after each rainfall, turning the site into a “notorious breeding ground for mosquitoes" that, given the site’s proximity to residential neighborhoods, is of particular concern “given the dangers of the Zika virus.”

As for the fire hazard the site poses, Lujan says he actually extinguished a brush fire at the Safe Tire dump years ago when he was a San Antonio firefighter. “It does not surprise me at all to learn that the Fire Marshall estimates that a fire could burn up to nine months at this site,” Lujan wrote in his letter to state regulators. “To remain silent and not take action would be inexcusable on my part.”

Read more: http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2016/07/15/state-rep-says-south-side-tire-dump-would-burn-for-nine-months-if-it-caught-fire