Gurugram, June 26 -- A major fire broke out at the Bandhwari landfill along the Gurugram-Faridabad Road on Thursday morning, with residents claiming that thick black smoke engulfed the area till afternoon. The blaze is the second major fire to be reported from the landfill this year, raising fresh environmental and public health concerns. Fire department officials said that they controlled the blaze by 1 pm. Two fire tenders were deployed and 40 water tankers were used to control the blaze. Residents of nearby villages said the fire started around 6am and quickly spread across large sections of the garbage dump. "We have a fire tender permanently stationed at the Bandhwari landfill, and four additional tenders were deployed to the site to bring the blaze under control," said Mam Chand, senior fire officer. Harbeer Harsana, village chief of Bandhwari, said the scale of the fire appeared alarming as it spread rapidly. "The fire was visible from our village, which is 5 kilometers from the landfill. This is not the first such fire at the landfill; these incidents keep recurring every summer," he said. Earlier in April, a major fire broke out at the landfill and continued for nearly 50 hours before being brought under control. Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) officials had then told HT that the landfill was equipped with methane detectors and firefighting systems and that additional upgrades would be introduced soon. MCG officials had also issued an order mandating round-the-clock monitoring of the site. "The current issue is that the fresh waste contains higher levels of methane, which causes frequent fires during periods of extreme heat. We are still looking for an alternative site to dump fresh waste. Meanwhile, 29 CCTV cameras have been installed to strengthen surveillance," the official said. Dr Preetpal Singh, joint commissioner, MCG, said the corporation has strengthened its preparedness in the wake of repeated fire incidents. Vaishali Rana, a Gurugram-based environmentalist, said such fires are often triggered by the accumulation of methane gas generated during the decomposition of waste....