Recent Incidents

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Union Mine Incident 

On Friday September 7th 2007 the District responded to an interesting call at the Union Mine dump.  It was reported as a wildland fire off Church Mine Road.  Investigation of the source of the smoke showed that it was the burn chamber at the dump site that burns off the methane gas.  The fire was contained to the stack but it was unknown if this was a normal occurrence.  Chief Cunningham requested a representative for the facility to respond. When Dave Johnson from El Dorado County Environmental Management did arrive at scene along with another facility manager, they stated that this was not normal for fire to be showing from the top of the stack.  After consulting the gauge panel for the facility it was determined that the louvers at the bottom of the stack were not automatically opening as they should.  John Ferry, directed by facility staff, manually opened the louvers on the vents.  This in combination with reducing the amount of gas entering the stack solved the problem.  So the take home message from this call was, if you see a six foot flame emitting from the stack, that’s not a normal occurrence. 

Photos taken by Andre Toutjian