Rankin Inlet (Jul 05/06) - The Rankin Inlet dump caught fire for the second time in about a year last week, covering parts of the hamlet with a thick, foul-smelling cloud of smoke.

All seven available members of Rankin's volunteer fire department spent three hours wading across mountains of trash to corral the June 29 blaze.

"It is not very pleasant," said fire chief Rick Penner. "But at least it's the dump and not somebody's house."

Penner is not sure what sparked the blaze, which began around 4:10 p.m. But with a wide array of chemicals and flammable materials in the landfill, spontaneous combustion remains one possibility, he said.

Some of the flames were buried under four-metre tall piles of trash, which Penner said made them difficult to reach. A hamlet bulldozer spent about two-and-a-half hours moving the garbage heaps around while fire fighters doused flare-ups.

"It can be dangerous with things like aerosol cans in there," Penner said. "Who knows what's in the garbage."

While the firefighters looked exhausted, the situation could have been worse, though. Last year, a blaze at the dump took an entire night to douse, according to some firefighters.

The fire likely released some noxious chemicals into the air, but Penner said Rankin residents were not in danger. None of the firefighters - who had to contend with bugs and rotting garbage along with the smoke - reported health problems, he said.

"It would take a much larger fire before we would consider evacuating parts of the town."

The dump, which is less than two kilometres from downtown Rankin, catches fire about once a year, Penner said.

The hamlet is building a new landfill outside town and hopes to have it operational by September, senior administrative officer John Hodgson said.

The old dump is slated to be cleared and reclaimed, a process the could take several years.