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Philippines landfill fire kills 1, chokes Metro Manila with worst air pollution in decades
Navotas Sanitary Landfill, 2 kms off the coast of Manila Bay, spontaneously burst into flames on April 10 and has been burning the past 20 days, spewing tons of ash into the air from burning garbage
- PUBLISHED: Wed 29 Apr 2026, 6:00 AM
Last week, 54-year old Arlene Abot died from toxic fumes from a raging fire at an offshore dumpsite in the capital region of Metro Manila in the Philippines. She was the first victim of the country’s worst air pollution disaster in this century.
The Navotas Sanitary Landfill, two kilometres off the coast of Manila Bay, spontaneously burst into flames on April 10 and it has been burning the past 20 days, spewing tons of ash into the air from burning garbage.
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It drove Abot and hundreds of fellow residents of the island village of Salambao in Obando town in nearby Bulacan province to evacuate their homes due to toxic fumes that had been blowing into their town. Abot complained of difficulty in breathing and was rushed to a hospital where she expired.
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The Navotas Sanitary Landfill had stopped operating since August last year. Philippine authorities said its previous operator, Philippine Ecology Systems Corp. (PhilEco), failed to complete the mandatory safe closure and rehabilitation plan (SCRP) after its concession expired.
PhilEco allegedly left the facility without properly securing it, such as covering the abandoned dumpsite with a layer of soil to prevent incidents like spontaneous combustion from happening.
There was no reason given why PhilEco abandoned the facility without properly securing it from potential tragedies such as the ongoing fire.
Island on fire
Since the landfill is an island, it took days for fire fighting equipment to be deployed to the site. Fire trucks had to be loaded on boats before they could start trying to put out the fire.
The national government eventually ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways to hastily build access roads to the island two kilometres away.
Bureau of Fire Protection spokesperson Anthony Arroyo admitted that while it is now easier to bring fire-fighting equipment and supplies to the island, they remain unsure when will they be able to put out the fire.
Arroyo said they are now using fire-retardant vehicles as plain water might cause the plastic membrane beneath the garbage to rip apart when it heats up, causing toxic garbage seepage to leak into Manila Bay’s water.
He added methane underneath the garbage pile is making it hard to extinguish the fire, aside from adding more hazardous fumes into the toxic mix that now blankets the atmosphere over the Philippines’ most densely-populated areas.
Alarmed, the Japan International Cooperation Agency had begun offering technical knowhow on how to put out the fire as soon as possible to prevent further environmental damage.
Very unhealthy to hazardous levels
Air quality in Metro Manila and in surrounding provinces had reached “very unhealthy to “hazardous levels.” Environmental engineering and consulting firm GreenDev Solutions recommended that children and adults, especially those with respiratory issues, must avoid going outdoors and conducting physical exertions. Abot’s death may have been caused by such hazardous air quality levels.
The ongoing landfill fire drew back Philippines’ efforts to improve its air quality by nearly three decades. The country began implementing air quality improvement measures when it passed the Clean Air Law in 1999 and begun banning garbage burning in backyards and in large sanitary landfill such as in Navotas.
Such measures, coupled with the partial phase out of public transportation vehicles with old engines and adopting Euro IV fuels, have resulted in significant improvements in air quality in one of the world’s biggest metropolises.
Until the ongoing Navotas garbage dump fire occured.
Metro Manila residents had been coughing and wheezing in the last 28 days from the thick and smelly haze that now blankets the city and surrounding areas.