MOODY, Ala. (WIAT) — Richard Harp’s nightmare shows no sign of coming to an end.

“It’s still burning. And this is unacceptable.”

The Moody landfill fire that began in November last year forced Harp and his family to flee from their St. Clair County home months ago. Now that the fire is growing once again, he’s not sure when or if his family will ever return.

“The hope is that we can move back. We have remediated and removed some things. We were about to remove the insulation but now that’s on hold,” Harp said. “Why would I put in new insulation that is going to get contaminated with smoke again?”

James Mulkey is the fire inspector for the city of Moody and confirms that a fire has burned through the cap that was installed in the spring. 

“We were called yesterday afternoon to a report that we had a fire on the backside of the property,” Mulkey said. “And when we got here it was about a 10 to 15-foot collapse, a sinkhole for lack of a better word, with smoke and a little bit of heat issuing from it.”

David Butler and his environmental group Cahaba Riverkeeper never stopped running tests on nearby waterways. Butler joins residents in a growing concern over the health impact the fire is having on the community.

“Like everybody in the area, we are concerned that as this continues to burn there could be impacts to the water, the creeks in the area, canals certainly to the people who live around the landfill,” Butler said.

James Mulkey says he has been notified by the EPA that they will arrive on Wednesday to take a look at the landfill.