Students concerned about landfill fire in Moody

MOODY, Ala. (WBRC) - Leaders say they aren’t making major changes until they find out what the data shows from the testing the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency completes at the landfill.

St. Clair County Schools Superintendent Justin Burns says they have installed dozens of air quality monitors at each school. He’s also asking administrators to monitor levels and make adjustments each day.

Juniors at Moody High School say fire is the main subject in and outside the classroom.

“Yeah, it’s a scary topic,” says Davis Miller. “My friend Sawyer went outside his house and he saw a bunch of fog. He thought it was fog but it was smoke and then he started smelling it and he went inside.”

Miller and Tyler Crews say the smell from the fire is not just in their neighborhoods.

“You can smell it,” says Crews. “When we’re in school when I wake up in the morning. I can smell it all in the morning. Then when we get to school I can smell it on people themselves.”

Now they’re concerned that the fire is impacting their health.

“I’d say about two weeks I had like a cough,” says Miller.” “I have many stomach problems and it’s just made it worse.”

“I’ve been coughing a little bit more and been feeling a little sicker,” says Crews.

The Environmental Protection Agency is collecting data at the landfill that will be sent into a lab to test what’s burning. St. Clair County leaders say that information will be made public as soon as it’s available.

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