Neighbourhoods near the Pembroke Dump fire from Palmetto Road to North Shore Road can expect another heavy dose of smoke and soot today.

Yesterday a steady stream of ash-filled air was pushed towards the north shore by 15 to 20 knot winds as the blaze burned for a third consecutive day.

But this was the first day people on the Palmetto Road side of the fire have dealt with the smoke wafting into their homes.

"Today the wind has shifted, I noticed it when I got up this morning," said Norma Davis, 75, who lives on Factory Lane.

Wednesday and Thursday she was able to keep the windows open, but Friday there was no chance. The smoke was too thick.

She said: "Today I had to close them. You can put the windows down, but it's still seeping through. I don't know how much longer it's going to go with the fire."

Ms Davis has been to check on her infirm neighbour, but today she gets on a plane for Antigua and worries about the community she's leaving behind.

At a late afternoon press conference yesterday Fire Chief Vincent Hollinsid advised the public Saturday will be a lot like Friday because wind conditions are keeping the smoke close to the ground. Around 1 p.m. Friday fire fighters made an attempt to accelerate the blaze by moving some of the waste to allow oxygen inside. But the winds began spreading embers and starting new fires. So the Chief instructed his crews to take a defensive position around the fire.

He said:"In other words, our fire fighters will apply water curtains to provide a shield of protection to prevent embers from igniting unburned areas of waste. "The down side of this is that when the water is applied, the smoke will rapidly cool and stay lower to the ground thus affecting area residents in the direction of the smoke plume."

One potential silver lining for fire strategy is the expected arrival of rain Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Chief Hollinsid said: "If that happens and it's a good shower we will make every effort to pull it apart and extinguish it."

Without a steady downpour the Chief's strategy will have to revert to what it's been thus far ? wait for the fire to burn out.

If the blaze continues through the weekend, Minister of Public Safety David Burch wants to assure the public the that the horticultural waste is pre sorted and doesn't carry the same dangers as a garbage fire.

Nonetheless the Ministry of Works and Engineering plans to test air and water quality in the coming days for toxins.

Even with that being the case people like Norma Davis think some kind of assistance is appropriate for nearby homeowners to clean their roofs.

Ms Davis said: "I would think so, some kind of compensation."

Although Minister Burch and Finance Minister Paula Cox say the idea of compensation will be thoughtfully considered only after the fire is out, Mr. Burch is cautious when people are quick to hold their hands out.

He said: "We will take into consideration all matters at the end of this process.

"But I think it kind of is un-Bermudian for somebody 50 and over to immediately go to a situation, that nobody deliberately started and nobody made happen to impose on folk, and say: 'What am I going to get out of the deal?' That's not Bermudian."

The Minister reiterated that people with respiratory problems should stay away from the area and drains should be covered to prevent soot from entering water tanks.

Government officials delivered bottled water door to door on Friday. Last night the Bermuda Regiment was called in to offer whatever assistance may be needed throughout the weekend.

Premier Ewart Brown, who returned to the Island from Washington D.C. yesterday, got a fairly close look at the fire while on his way into Hamilton from the Airport. He also received a briefing from Government Ministers.

The Pembroke Dump fire began on Wednesday morning in a heap of horticultural waste that some estimate was eight storeys high. It got so tall because, according to Works and Engineering Minister Dennis Lister, huge equipment designed to move the waste had broken down. And then the backup equipment failed. It has taken months to get replacement parts brought in.

However, yesterday, quite unexpectedly, Minister Lister said: "The parts will be arriving on the Island very shortly. I don't want to put a time frame on it yet, but very shortly they will be on the Island and as soon as we get them on the Island we will be able to get the equipment back up and running."

Later in the House of Assembly he told members the parts will arrive early next week.

He also offered the Government's remorse: "The Ministry of Works and Engineering wishes to apologise to those families and businesses that have been affected by the smoke and ash from the fire."

In one example, Central Auto Garage on Parsons Road was forced to close two of the five days in the past business week.

Most of the criticism thus far has fallen at the feet of Mr. Lister's Ministry because its damaged equipment went unfixed for so long. Minister Lister said: "Not only is the public uncomfortable with the period of time that it's taken, but we're uncomfortable. "We've had extensive conversations since the fire broke out as to how we got here. The process has to be amended in the future so we don't see this happen again if this machine goes down again."

There's some disagreement among neighbours about whether or not this week's landfill fire is the worst the area has seen. Brothers Calvin Smith, 70, and Ellsworth Smith, 69, own a home on East Gate Lane. The Pembroke Dump was the backdrop of their childhood.

The younger sibling believes the unrelenting smoke and soot they experienced yesterday was the worst ever.

Ellsworth Smith said: "It was never this big. This could have been prevented, it shouldn't have been that high. Somebody or some department or some group of people are to blame for this."

His brother feels differently. He thinks people on the Parsons Road side of the dump have been dealing with these kids of conditions for years, especially back when the Government burned trash at the site.

Calvin Smith said: "We never experienced this much smoke only because when the wind blew this way they never lit the fire. They knew they had Government House over here."

On Friday Government House was not spared the onslaught of smoke, it stretched all the way to the north shore. Although officials seemed optimistic that everyday would bring new progress, Minister Burch closed yesterday's press conference with a bleak reminder. He said: "I believe it's worth mentioning, just as an aside, that Marsh Folly is a landfill so you can expect that we probably will have fires of this nature going forward. But clearly Works and Engineering are taking the necessary precautions so that you're not getting the combustion occurring."