we've had many fires this spring - many of them spectacular and dangerous - but the weirdest fire of all is burning in socorro - and it's been burning for a long long time - stuart dyson paid a visit this evening. " no flames - very little smoke - and it's been burning for 11 years - and i'm standing right on top of it!" underneath three or four feet of dirt and rocks 750 thousand tires are smoldering away - emitting a little smoke - hard to see but you can smell em cooking. here's how it looked back in june of 2000 - when lightning zapped powerline transformers and the burning oil barbecued the goodyears and firestones piled up in the old s-t-p tire dump on the south side of town - the feds took over - e-p-a - and buried the tires under tons of dirt - now socorro's mayor says they're going to bury it again and get it right this time. " they're gonna cap it withirt - and then they'll have to vegetate it - and then put in monitor holes to check the groundwater - hopefully that'll keep it under control and then eventually the fire should die out." here's an old dump truck that got roasted in the fire - ditto for the tire shredder - nice to know there were some survivors. money for the re-burial comes from a lawsuit settlement between the tire recycler and the power company. " socorro city officials are hoping that the underground fire can get recapped for good by february of next year
