Six Day Waste Dump Fire in Brazil Comes to an End

Firefighters extinguished an outdoor leather waste site Tuesday that burned six days at a tannery in southern Brazil.

Only small pockets of smoke remain of the blaze ignited Oct. 7 by a wildfire in Bocaina, Sao Paulo, local media report. Bocaina is about 700 kilometers west of Rio de Janeiro.

The Bocaina Civil Defense firefighters, working together with the Jaú Fire Department, originally thought the fire had been extinguished Oct. 8. However, the fire fueled by leather waste in bales rekindled and continued to burn.

The Civil Defense reported that fire crew poured at least 300,000 liters of water on the blaze in the first three days alone.

Firefighter were forced to split their resources between the leather waste fire and another massive blaze that spread through a palm plantation nearby. That fire reached nearly 50 vehicles parked near the fire scene.

No injuries were reported from either fire. The tannery owner suspended operations due to the heavy smoke from the leather waste.