Firefighters who faced down the inferno on Pembroke Dump described the blaze, now quelled, as the biggest they’d seen at Marsh Folly.“I never had a fire like that, with the wind sending embers 50 to 200 feet to another spot,” recalled veteran fireman, driver and EMT Michael Madeiros. “With this one, we were chasing the fire.”From the glow in the sky as they rushed to the scene, to the intensity of the heat on their faces and the darkness under blankets of smoke, Mr Madeiros and firefighter Ryan DeSilva experienced a surreal night stamping out multiple fires that threatened housing on Perimeter Lane.Describing advancing on the fire as rodents and feral chickens fled, Mr Madeiros said: “When everything else is running away from it, we’re the guys running into it.”No cause has been found for the blaze, but firemen attributed the swift containment to lessons learned from the last eruption of fire at the site.A lack of rain had dried the plant matter on the dump to tinder, but new pumping equipment blasted high volumes of water straight from the marsh, rather than depending on Hamilton’s hydrant system.The fire was officially declared out by 5pm on Saturday.“We just about emptied the canal,” said Mr Madeiros, a 16-year firefighter. “We’ve got one pump still out there on the site as a precaution, in case there’s another flare-up.“But for those pumps, with the size of the fire we had out there, we’d probably still be out there right now.”Both men were called in to 14-hour shifts shortly after 8pm on Thursday night.For Mr DeSilva, a year and a half into the job, the blaze was “bigger than HWP”, he said, with strange-coloured flames ranging from blue to orange.“As soon as I got out of the truck I could feel the heat of it. We dropped equipment off and then went back to the station for more equipment. We delivered it, I got my breathing apparatus on, and went in.“Just up the hill from the entrance there was one massive blaze on the right hand side and a lot of blazes down the left.“Different sections went to work, trying to put the main fire out and to contain the others so they didn’t travel down the hill to the housing. There was constant movement.”Sent around to the back of the fire, Mr Ryan had to find his way through the blanketing smoke and steam by following hoses.Added Mr Madeiros: “At 3, 4am it was very difficult to see. It’s overwhelming. You’ve got the light from the truck for the first 40, 50 feet, and then the terrain isn’t level, you’ve got logs to get over, and you don’t know what your next step is going to be like.”Describing the night only in terms of adrenalin, the two men said their real fear was for nearby homes.“That was the plus for me,” Mr Madeiros said. “Allowing those people to go home.”Pembroke Dump’s interior is warm with pressurised, decaying matter, but fire cannot burn indefinitely inside. However, Mr Ryan estimated the flames were able to penetrate perhaps as much as 20 feet underground, and yesterday morning a buried pocket had to be soaked down.Both men described Marsh Folly workers as unsung heroes in the fight, breaking down burning material with heavy equipment so that fire crews could douse it.Cost constraints were also a factor in such a large operation, Mr Madeiros added.“With the financial situation we’re having right now, Government unfortunately has to be careful with expenses, but they managed it well,” he said. “They used the manpower as it was needed.”In the aftermath, the tedious work of cleaning trucks and hoses caked in soot and mud was underway at the Hamilton Fire Station.Asked how the fire risk at the dump could be reduced, both firefighters admitted it was a challenge.“Upper management is holding a lot of discussions to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Mr Madeiros said. “With no rain, that’s what created a difficult situation to control this time.”Although Government has hinted at proposals under consideration for the dump, there was no update last night on discussions hinted at on Friday by Health Minister Zane DeSilva.Asked if the quantities of horticultural waste at the dump could be reduced by adding it to Tynes Bay, Mr Madeiros said: “I don’t think so, frankly.“Tynes Bay is burning garbage 24 hours a day. One good thought would maybe have people encouraged to use more of the mulch and compost around their homes.”With damp weather helping to soak down the dump, most of the work now consists of keeping watch and continuing to wet both the surface and “hot pockets” underground.