The 5million Tire Fire in Jahra, Kuwait.

Aliyah woke up- like always I lift my phone and while I’m feeding her, to keep me awake I browse twitter-
I was horrified to see that the 5 million tyres at Jahra that was so heavily in the media a few days ago are now on fire… That’s arson if ever I saw it…
Massive amounts of tyres on fire bel jahra! one tweeter writes… ‘looking to be the biggest fire/worst enviornmental effects in Kuwait since Saddam’- great four our health!
Here’s the hasgtag on twitter! #حريق_رحية

This is a huge catastrophe, one sit saying that the smoke will be visible up to 70km away by sunrise. That’s not good, not good at all….. What a huge catastrophe to the environment…. The air here is dirty enough with the oil/dust etc etc etc, now we are all at risk of a bunch of stuff.
Tires are made of rubber, fibre and steel. The rubber is a combination of natural rubber, petroleum products, chemicals and carbon black. These additives are necessary to improve the handling and wear of natural rubber. When tire piles burn, these chemicals emerge as two things: 1) oily residues that leach into the soil and 2) thick black smoke which contains large amounts of air pollutants. Tire fire emissions can pose significant health hazards to all involved (firefighters, residents, etc.) and include irritation of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes, respiratory effects, central nervous system depression, and cancer. Long-term environmental and health effects are unknown.

Tires burn so well because of the amount of empty space in a whole tire (75%) and the doughnut shape of the tire. These attributes make a tire great for transport but make a burning tire very difficult to extinguish with water or to eliminate the air supply that fires feed upon.

The most famous tire fire happened in Hagersville, Ontario in 1990. It was the largest tire fire on the planet: fourteen million tires caught fire. It burned for 17 days and drove 4,000 people from their homes. Thirteen years after the fire, it is reported that the pile still smoulders – imagine the money being spent by that municipality and the province to keep it under control…..

The upside to this environmental nightmare is the new-found public awareness and education about the proper handling of scrap tires. The fire 13 years ago spurred the development of tire recycling programs that deal with (and have greatly reduced) the tire piles in many parts of the country.

SO KUWAIT – time to put in place a TIRE RECYCLING PROGRAMME!!!now!
– and i mean before 5million more tires end up piled high and well grilled..barbecued…

Update- sunrise pics

Please note- Im pulling these pictures from twitter and have no idea where the original source is…