Tynes Bay residents are living in fear of another inferno at the waste treatment plant.

A problem with a shredder has led to a growing pile of refuse ? seen as possible ammunition for an arsonist.

It has stoked memories of the Christmas Day 2004 arson attack at the Devonshire facility. The blaze lasted three days.

Now some anxious residents are calling for Works and Engineering Minister Ashfield DeVent to resign.

Elizabeth Every said: ?If he can?t handle the job, move on. There might be someone who is more capable with newer ideas.?

One of those with most reason to be concerned is Wendy West, a nurse. She said her home was closes to the heap and vagrants slept in the area. ?Someone will set fire to it again. Some copy-cat will come and do it and I will have to be evacuated again.? She added: ?Tramps sleep up there. How do they know there was not any tramps up there during the fire? The heat was so intense they would not have found anything.?

Bermuda?s Fire Chief Vincent Hollinsid said he had expressed an opinion about the refuse pile to Government but would not say what it was. ?That?s their property. The issue is that that is the responsibility of Works and Engineering. They operate that plant.?

Government faced a massive bill to pay the 98 fire-fighters involved in last year?s blaze which involved tons of burning material.

Plant manager Kirk Outerbridge said the pile had grown due to routine maintenance to a shredding machine. He denied that a part was missing, although residents have heard otherwise, among them Mrs. Every.

?A couple of the guys who work at the incinerator have come down to the shop and talked to my husband,? she said. ?They are missing a part for a shredder again. A couple of months ago it was the same thing. But they managed to find a piece to get it in working condition. The pile was going up again but they managed to get it back down again.?

Ms West said Government was not addressing the problem, adding she lived in fear of being trapped by another massive firestorm.

?It?s been the same since Christmas and they have not done anything. It?s dangerous. My house will have to be cleaned again, including the roof and the tank.

?It was so scary. I was standing at my front door and heat was so immense I was going to jump overboard with my two Rottweilers. I had nowhere else to go.?

Ms West has lived at her North Shore Road home for the last seven years. She wants to sell the property but the rubbish will hit the selling price.

She said she went to see Acting Tynes Bay Plant Manager Kirk Outerbridge several times, yet he was powerless to fix the problem.

?The machines are up there from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. moving it all over the place but they never get rid of it.?

Mrs. Every said when Mr. DeVent came to Tynes Bay to inspect the damage caused by the fire he was across the street, but never came around to the neighbours to talk.

Before the Christmas fire the heap blocked her view of Shelly Bay. ?I do not want another repeat of the fire that destroyed our family Christmas dinner.?

She fled her home with her three young children and pets while her husband and brother stayed behind and fought side by side with fire-fighters.

?We can take it for so much but when it comes next to a residential area they have to have more consideration and have a working order of machines or have parts on the side just in case.?

Another Tynes Bay resident who did not wish to be named said he had to leave the premises for four days during the last fire.

?It probably could happen again,? he said.

He said he was worried that if Bermuda was hit by a hurricane the heavy refuse would be like ammunition fired around the neighbourhood.

?The last time we were hit by a hurricane they did not make an effort to lower it.?

But he conceded Government repainted his roof and replanted some grass that was scorched by the blaze.