ROME, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out at dawn on Tuesday at a waste treatment plant in northeastern Rome, sending a vast cloud over residential neighborhoods, local media and and authorities reported.
A firefighters helicopter video posted online by La Repubblica newspaper showed a huge mushroom-shaped black cloud towering over the Italian capital. Carabinieri police also posted a video of the cloud on Twitter, describing it as "a vast cloud due to a fire in a waste stocking site".
At 11:45 a.m.local time, the national Firefighters Corps posted a video on Twitter showing firefighters spraying water on a massive pile of trash in a warehouse, writing that "the fire in the waste deposit is under control. Operations to put it out completely will take a long time."
Speaking on RAI News 24 public broadcaster, city environmental council member Pinuccia Montanari urged residents "not to open their windows" as a precaution.
Mayor Viriginia Raggi and Environment Minister Sergio Costa both visited the site, as well as prosecutors and police investigators who are trying to ascertain the causes of the fire, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The Lazio region where Rome is located tweeted that "regional authorities have been activated since dawn and (regional environmental protection agency) ARPA is at work to monitor air quality".
On Facebook, regional authorities said that "no out of the norm levels have been recorded in terms of air pollution".
Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) President Stefano Laporta told ANSA that "the consequences of the fire will affect the waste treatment cycle for the entire city of Rome" and this cause for "concern".
Local residents have been mobilizing for years to protest the waste treatment plant that opened in 2006, saying it gives off toxic gases that cause a number of symptoms including headaches, nausea, and respiratory ailments.
"The facility built a few metres from a nursery school and thousands of homes in a sector with 40,000 residents is a problem due to miasmas and irritation to the eyes and throat," Corriere della Sera newspaper wrote. "Over 3,000 tonnes of trash had accumulated in the waste treatment plant where the fire broke out, whose maximum capacity is supposed to be 600 tonnes."
