NEW ORLEANS — The smoke you may have seen across the city Friday morning is coming from the New Orleans East marsh fire, which has been burning for three weeks now. According to city and state agencies, it could be weeks or even months before it's extinguished.
Sam Mousa owns a gas station out in New Orleans East, he says inhaling the smoke daily is making him sick.
Mousa told WWLTV, "My partner telling me, he just wants to get inside the store that is how bad is the smoke."
He went on to say, "To be honest with you, yesterday I had a headache, I just want to leave the store, that's how bad. I wasn't feeling good smelling that all day long."
According to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry the fire is burning on private property. Dr. Mike Strain, the Commissioner of the LDAF said, "Its burning down below the surface and into the peat layer."
Peat is decaying vegetation, so organic matter, that's why the smell is a little more acrid and doesn't smell like smoke from a wildfire.
Dr. Strain said, "One of the things you have in the marshland you have a great deal of organic matter, you have a great deal of methane, and it will burn."
LDAF says the plan now is flood the entire area, but warns the fire could still burn even if underwater. That's why big pumps are being brought in to keep the swamp flooded.
"When we get the larger pumps in place these pumps and an 8" pump in general can pump up to about 2500 gallons per minute, and if we can get five or six then we can get between 12/15000 gallons per minute which basically means, if all goes well, we can put an inch of water over the entire surface area every 12 - 15 hours," said Dr. Strain.
Collin Arnold, director of homeland security and emergency preparedness says the city believes the fire won't spread to any surrounding areas. He advices, those with respiratory issues, pregnant women and the young and the old stay inside.
"Pay very close attention to the wind, when we have north and east winds, we're going to see more impacts over the city, when we have south winds, our neighbors in St. Bernard, Plaquemines and potentially the Northshore... will get some of the smoke as well," said Arnold.
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