First drenching rains, and now we’re facing extreme heat. It's a recipe for a lot of mosquitoes that’s enough to endanger your health, as it did residents of one city that was once invaded by these pests...all because of a "graveyard" for old tires.
"It was real bad."
Donnie Winningham will never forget one of the largest tire dumps in the state of Alabama, right in the city of Attalla. The property's owner was supposedly in the process of recycling the tons of tires, but it was a job that never got done.
"They were taking them in, but they weren't moving them out" says Winningham.
The tire build-up attracted a virtual plague of mosquitoes and bugs into the city, threatening a scary transmission of disease to people living nearby. Now, after about three years later, the property has been completely cleaned of the tires.
"It’s not something the city could have done on their own. We had to have help, and we certainly appreciate the help that we did receive," Winningham adds.
Firefighters explain that if a fire had broken out across the tire yard, it would have taken months to control and led to the entire city being evacuated. Fortunately for the city, that is now a near impossibility.
