There was a fire at the Steinbach Landfill Sunday morning.

Steinbach Fire Chief Kel Toews says the fire department was called to the garbage fire around 9:30 A.M. Being at the landfill, Toews says they didn't have hydrants to work with.

"We had to run water to the site with tankers. We were lucky that it was on top of the hill and it didn't work its way into the hill. It does take a bit of time with some landfill staff and their crawler to expose some of that stuff and apply water to it, so it was a bit of a longer process but it is now under control and we are back and ready for service."

The fire department was able to wrap up shortly after 11 A.M.

Eldon Wallman is the Head of Solid Waste for the City of Steinbach. He notes at this point, they don’t know what caused the fire.

"Fires at a landfill are always a bit mysterious. You really don't know how they actually start. There are a hundred different ways that something in the composition of the garbage could start a fire and ignite."

Wallman says fires at the landfill happen more often than most people realize, they just usually aren’t this big.

"Over a weekend like this, if it is on a day off when nobody is here, it tends to get a little bit bigger than we normally deal with so this one actually had to have the fire department here to help us put it out. They had it all knocked down and they did a great job again for us."