Overview

• The fire broke out Saturday evening just hours after officials assured the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the landfill would be cleared by May 31.
• Firefighters mobilized more than a dozen tenders and used over 100 litres of water to contain flames by 8 pm and fully extinguish the blaze by 1 am.
• Authorities have launched an investigation into the fire’s origin as smoldering embers continued into early Sunday.
• The 45.11-acre Dadumajra site, located near residential areas, has experienced at least four major fires since 2020, underscoring chronic waste-management failures.
• Residents report that roughly 75 percent of households suffer gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments from landfill fumes even as officials maintain no fresh waste has been added since the court deadline.