r/Calgary • u/JeromyYYC Mayor McMayorFace • 15h ago
PSA Calgary Fire crews are battling a massive private landfill fire in southeast Calgary
UPDATE 2026 09 08 6am
On September 6th, 2026, the Calgary Fire Department (CFD) began fire operations at the ECCO Recycling site in southeast Calgary. Crews maintained continuous suppression operations at the site with the assistance of City of Calgary Waste and Recycling (CoCWR), contractors from CoCWR, Alberta Environment and employees of ECCO. In the evening of September 7th, 2026, the CFD was able to bring the incident under control and release the scene back to ECCO for continued monitoring and work maintaining the site.
The smoke from the site has been reduced significantly and there is no longer a plume drifting into adjacent communities. The cooperation of citizens has been pivotal during this operation and conditions should return to normal.
Through the night, CFD crews will be demobilizing in the area and returning to regular service. Please be aware of fire crews working in the Shepard area this evening as conditions return to normal.
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I want to update you on the large fire burning at the ECCO Recycling private landfill in southeast Calgary.
Calgary Fire started receiving calls around 6 p.m. yesterday reporting smoke and flames near Barlow Trail and Shepard Road SE.
When firefighters arrived, they found a large fire burning on the east side of the landfill.
Getting to the fire has been difficult. Crews are dealing with poor roads, wet conditions and extremely limited access inside the landfill.
Because they could not safely get equipment directly to parts of the fire, crews moved to a neighbouring business east of the landfill and set up defensive operations. Their immediate priority has been containing the fire to the area where it started and preventing it from spreading.
That work continued through the night and into today.
Landfill staff are supporting the response. City Waste and Recycling Services has also brought equipment and expertise to the site to help get this fire under control and eventually extinguish it.
There is also an air-quality issue we are watching closely. A large plume of smoke is rising from the site and drifting southeast.
Calgary Fire’s Hazardous Materials team is sampling the air and modelling where that smoke is travelling. We are also working with Alberta Environment to continuously monitor conditions.
If you live or work in Douglasdale, Quarry Park, East Shepard, McKenzie Towne, New Brighton or Copperfield, the smoke could cause irritation. If you smell smoke, close your windows and stay indoors where possible.
This is expected to be a long-duration incident. Firefighters will remain on scene working to contain and extinguish it.
Thank you to our Calgary firefighters who have been working around the clock, our Waste and Recycling crews, landfill staff and everyone supporting this response.
We will keep you updated as conditions change.
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u/battlelevel 13h ago
When is there going to some actual, visible enforcement of the penalties for the violations?
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u/totally_not_a_bot_99 15h ago
Isn't that the one with the giant tower of trash that is not being managed?
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u/Legitimate_Window481 15h ago
Please close this place.
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u/haveblue23 13h ago
Turn it into a golf course and ski hill
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u/christhewelder75 15h ago
Doesnt this place catch fire like every few months?
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u/rockinsocks8 14h ago
This one hasn’t, but they have had issues with not properly storing and sorting their recycling.
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u/IrregardlesslyCurect 13h ago
Landfill fires are extremely common and usually the result of people throwing away batteries. PSA DONT THROW AWAY BATTERIES!!!! If you have put batteries in the garbage you are the problem, you started the fire.
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u/a-little-onee 7h ago
Yes it’s important to properly recycle batteries. However, Ecco is primarily a landfill and recycling centre for construction and demolition waste. I’m not discouraging your comment about proper waste disposal at all, and we should also make sure we are holding private business accountable !
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15h ago
[deleted]
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u/swordthroughtheduck 14h ago
He was probably asked to do this by the Fire Department since the smoke is visible from such a distance and they want people to know they're dealing with it.
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u/Arcaneiy 14h ago
Damn what did we do before our mayor posted on Reddit???
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u/Shroom-Kitty 14h ago
We made posts on reddit to ask what's going on. But he beat us to the punch! Damn mayor providing information for the citizens of his city. How are we supposed to wildly speculate and lie about what it is, like a true redditor would?!?
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u/LinkSecret9342 12h ago
Gotta say these posts have a big impact on how I view you as our mayor.
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u/JeromyYYC Mayor McMayorFace 12h ago
Much appreciated! I know that they are long and not super polished
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u/bobbee-shawarma 14h ago
Great job by the city for their response and support. After this incident is settled, private landfills should further be regulated and monitored to prevent these occurrences. Private mistakes should not be public problems (taking public resources) but they are and they should be fined and regulated appropriately.
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u/Shanksworthy73 12h ago
Thanks for taking the time to always keep us apprised, Mayor Jeromy. You’re setting new standards for communication, and it’s refreshing. I will leave it at that.
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u/Fit-Bug-1098 15h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/JOG3AA9pCgHCw
Guess someone's being tossing their lithium batteries into the bins again.
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u/sarieb3ar Southeast Calgary 12h ago
Shouldn’t a requirement of having a recycling and/or landfill be that you have good roads with easy access?
This seems unacceptable to me that emergency crews could not get access to this fire. Would this happen at Shepherd?
Maybe I don’t understand this world enough but this should not be allowed to continue.
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u/MeowmixMEOW 12h ago
Is this thing still on fire? That’s like a 24 hour fire. At least garbage mountain will be a bit smaller
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u/WE_THINK_IS_COOL 14h ago edited 14h ago
I would be really interested in the technical reasons why one of those forest-fire-fighting helicopters isn't a good solution to the access problem. Too big of a fire?
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u/andyyc1 12h ago
It wouldn't get to the seat of the fire. You might douse the outer material but those landfil heaps are deep and packed. The only way to knock them out is to just dump a heavy constant stream on it and wait for it to eventually cool the material or like they've done before at these kinda sites, get heavy machinery in to break down the pile and make access to the seat of the fire easier.
A helicopter dropping buckets might look cool but it's effectiveness is limited in this scenario.
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u/Tiny-Pop-600 Copperfield 14h ago
I work on 130th and when I was on break , I saw a bunch of fire trucks come past, there was at least like 3-4 of them. As well as i've had the multiple customers come in saying that it's fairly smoky outside, they're being a fire occurring at the dump makes more sense with all these occurrences. Thank you for the information Mr.Mayor on what is occurring and all your updates
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u/Guilty_Fishing8229 14h ago
Second southeast landfill fire in the last month.
Time to start moving these landfills far away from residential neighborhoods
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u/rockinsocks8 14h ago
We can try but Calgary keeps growing to meet the landfills
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u/haveblue23 13h ago
And when it does, shut down that landfill and move it further out
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u/christhewelder75 11h ago
Its about 4-760 MILLION to build a proper landfill. Which has a lifespan of about 30-50 years.
Then once you "shut down" the land fill, what do you think will be done on that land? Cus no one is going to be building there. Its going to sit as a half full landfill forever.
Its way more reasonable to tell developers not to plan to build communities enveloping a landfill site thats been in operation for 34 years in the case of the ecco recycling facility.
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u/christhewelder75 13h ago
These landfills were here long before any residential neighborhoods.
Shutting them down and "moving" them isnt a feasible solution.
The shepherd landfill has another 40 years of capacity. It would cost between 439 and 761 million dollars to build a new site somewhere else. (Which would then eventually be engulfed by urban sprawl)
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u/harryhend3rson 11h ago
City of Calgary run landfills are able to extinguish fires immediately due to how they're managed. This is a private landfill.
Calgary doesn't realize how good they have it having landfills in the city. Most municipalities have to truck their waste hundreds of kilometers at huge expense, not to mention carbon footprint. It's also basically impossible to site a new landfill nowadays. So, unless you and your family are willing to adopt a zero waste lifestyle, I'd recommend accepting the fact that they exist.
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u/Much_Chest586 14h ago
If I burn garbage, massive fine I bet.
Private landfill though? Here's massive amounts of tax-payer funded resources.
Profits more important than any Calgarian.
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u/Appropriate_Ad8572 14h ago
Would you rather they do nothing, and let the fire spread to other businesses? And who's to say that they won't be getting fined?
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u/battlelevel 13h ago
They were fined about a month ago for interfering with an inspection. 3k. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/a9fe0244-9c39-4aa6-9716-6e304e963272/resource/087a7885-1db6-44de-9b49-79d47571eb6a/download/administrative-penalty-no.-ap-epea-dcom-3597.pdf
In June they were still accepting trash without a permit and against the city ordering them to stop. https://guelph.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/cant-be-good-southeast-calgary-residents-anxious-over-garbage-dust-from-recycling-plant/
Ecco doesn’t care.
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u/Desperate-Copy-3191 14h ago
charge the owners. Starting a fire in a rainstorm, not suspicious at all.
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u/Cobradoug 15h ago
Any idea on what is actually burning? Landfill fires are a great recipe for the formation of dioxins and furans. I hope they are being sampled for by the fire department.
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u/Hugs_and_Tugs 15h ago
Maybe this is another opportunity for the city to step up their messaging on how to use some tools to make air quality improvements?
Between increasing wildfire smoke, industrial accidents, and airborne illnesses, could we maybe get proactive about how to improve the air in homes, businesses, and public places?
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u/socialinjustice83 7h ago
Curious, what is CFD using as their water source? Assuming nearby water collection ponds? What type of waste is on fire (ie what kind of attack is req'd?) Curious and nerdy.
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u/likeapirate 16m ago
Any updates? The winds are sending a lot of this back into the city…
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u/JeromyYYC Mayor McMayorFace 11m ago
On September 6th, 2026, the Calgary Fire Department (CFD) began fire operations at the ECCO Recycling site in southeast Calgary. Crews maintained continuous suppression operations at the site with the assistance of City of Calgary Waste and Recycling (CoCWR), contractors from CoCWR, Alberta Environment and employees of ECCO. In the evening of September 7th, 2026, the CFD was able to bring the incident under control and release the scene back to ECCO for continued monitoring and work maintaining the site.
The smoke from the site has been reduced significantly and there is no longer a plume drifting into adjacent communities. The cooperation of citizens has been pivotal during this operation and conditions should return to normal.
Through the night, CFD crews will be demobilizing in the area and returning to regular service. Please be aware of fire crews working in the Shepard area this evening as conditions return to normal.
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u/Hot-Feedback-6795 15h ago
The Springfield Tire Fire