NEW ORLEANS — As fires continued to spread smoke and a bad smell throughout Southeast Louisiana on Saturday, New Orleans firefighters warned of a long battle ahead for the department and addressed some of the challenges in putting it out.
A press release sent on Friday by fire officials described the location of the fire on private property as a roadblock to garnering outside support, preventing NOFD from receiving more comprehensive support from federal departments like U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The fire while near Bayou Sauvage has not been burning inside the jurisdiction of that federal land.
"That is a local/state issue, not federal," NOFD officials said Friday. "However, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are providing expertise and assistance when possible."
According to Refuge Manager Shelley Stiaes of U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the fire has been burning near the intersection of Industrial Parkway and Chef Mentaur Highway, inside a wooded area in New Orleans East.
Another challenge NOFD said they have faced in the fight against the fire has been the fact the fire has been burning underground. Making traditional firefighting methods of dropping water onto the fire ineffective. Instead, NOFD said they have recruited the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry in an effort to pump water underground, flooding the area.
NOFD said this method will take a while.
"Currently the most effective method of attacking the underground fire is to continue flowing water onto the property and saturating the ground," NOFD officials said Friday. "It is effective, but it will be a long slow process."
In the meantime, residents throughout St. Bernard and Orleans have been faced with difficulty breathing and a bad smell from the fire's resulting smoke. On Thursday, reports of smoke came in from across the New Orleans metro from Uptown, to Algiers, and Harahan.
Harry Gioe, 67, who lives in Chalmette and suffers from a chronic lung disease called COPD said the smoke woke him up in the middle of the night.
"This is the first time the smell is in my house," Gioe said Thursday. "I woke my dog up at 1 in the morning and now it has me up, it's got my nose on fire, I can't breathe."