HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — An abandoned car was engulfed in flames on Wednesday just off the side of the road leading to the Zero Down subdivision in Yigo, stalling traffic as firefighters arrived and put out the flames, which had danced around the area lighting up the trash and other debris.
It wasn’t the first time a car had been dumped in the area, leading to potential health and safety issues. No one’s sure exactly where they come from. Additionally, the area, which is just a short walk from a children’s bus stop, is often littered with household trash and other debris, said one concerned resident.
“Basically there’s been a lot of illegal dumping,” Jeff Carandang said, noting he’s made phone calls to the Yigo Mayor’s Office, the Guam Environmental Protection Agency, the Guam Police Department and others “since last year or longer.”
He said he has his suspicions about where the household trash and other illegally dumped waste come from. But reports to officials haven’t led to much action from where he stands.
“Everyone just gives me the runaround. It seems like no one cares about what’s going there,” he said, adding his concern that the area doesn’t seem to get much attention.
Yigo Vice Mayor Loreto Leones said village workers have picked up trash in the area. But like other illegal dump sites around the island, it’s cleaned one day, and then people dump their trash the very next day.
During a cleanup about two months ago, workers filled one 20-foot-trash bin, as well as two big trailers and the trucks that were pulling them.
“I went around the next day to check and it’s the same again,” he said. “If we are able to catch them in the act, then we will cite them. The fine is $500 on the first offense. But unfortunately, we never catch anyone.”
Guam EPA officials and mayors have said that proving the trash belongs to someone isn’t the same as proving they dumped it. There have been instances when people approach homeowners saying they’ll dispose of their trash for a fee, but they end up dumping the trash by the road or near a river and keeping the fee for labor plus the fee for the transfer station.
Questions were sent to Guam EPA officials, but a response is pending.
Stripped, burned cars
Carandang said he’s heard the abandoned cars are typically stolen vehicles that are burned after the culprits have stripped them.
“They take what they need, then they dump it and burn it,” he said.
Guam Fire Department responds to reported car fires, including the one that occurred Wednesday. GFD spokesman Firefighter Kevin Reilly said oftentimes it doesn’t seem like the fires in the abandoned vehicles could have started because of mechanical or electrical faults.
Vice Mayor Leones said village officials don’t know where the vehicles come from or whether they’re stolen, but they appear faster than they can be removed.
“We clear it out and then the next day, there’s another one,” he said, adding that funds for removing abandoned vehicles have to be spread evenly throughout the village. The funds for this year are enough to haul about 200 vehicles, which means not all abandoned vehicles will be removed.
He said some vehicles were recently removed from the area. On a recent drive through the area he saw a blue truck that hadn’t been there before.
Leones said village officials are at their wits’ end: “It’s very hard to say the solution because no matter what we do (to clean) up the area people keep dumping.”
Guam Police Department spokesperson Officer Berlyn Savella said it’s not always easy to determine if a vehicle is stolen, especially if it’s badly burned.
“When an officer finds a vehicle on the side of the road, a road they commonly travel or patrol, the officer would verify through the license plate if it’s stolen or through the (vehicle identification number) of the vehicle,” she said.
Savella said sometimes when the officer makes an attempt to contact the registered owner, the owner sold the car years ago and it hasn’t been transferred, or the owner can’t be found because the person moved off island, is deceased, or has changed address and contact information.
She said sometimes a car is “dumped on the side to get rid of a vehicle they’ve used in a crime.”
She added that some people abandon their vehicles because they have no money to tow or fix a stalled vehicle.
Concerned Yigo, Guam resident Jeff Carandang, along with others in the community, are growing tired of the accumulation of dumped vehicles and trash in their neighborhood.
