The Civil Defense firefighters extinguishing the fire in the vast landfill in the Edde Valley. Photo taken from the Bilad Batroun page on Facebook.
The municipality of Batroun announced Thursday that a fire burning since Sunday at the Edde landfill — specifically in the Edde Valley in Batroun district — had finally been contained after four days.
In a statement published on social media, the municipality said "strong winds hampered firefighting operations" and praised the efforts of Civil Defense teams, which ultimately brought the fire under control.
The blaze broke out at the landfill around 4 p.m. Sunday, while municipal elections were underway in the northern Lebanon district. Several reports described severe pollution from the fire, which impacted multiple villages in the area.
The landfill has served as the main dumping site for waste from across Batroun’s villages for decades. A waste treatment facility project, launched by the Federation of Batroun Municipalities in 2016 to reduce the site’s volume, remains incomplete due to a lack of funding, according to Edde municipal council president Najm Khattar, who spoke to L’Orient-Le Jour.