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. TIRES: Blaze still hot (Continued from page Al) groundwater under the site determine a cleanup plan. cannot be completed until the And they'll be able to do fire is completely out. more testing. Federal EPA officials decided While every agency involved soon after the fire began that said Tuesday that there is no rather than pouring water on it, health threat to residents of they would let it burn itself out. surrounding communities, Adding water, Spagnole said, neighbors who live close to the could increase the chances for pit say their lives have changed groundwater contamination. since the fire started burning Meanwhile other rural Aug. 7. residents continue to complain Stephen O'Hagan, for about air quality. instance, a resident of nearby Palmquist Drive, said he hasn't Paul Lemieux, a chemical been able to use his backyard engineer for the EPA, said he well since the end of August. has studied other tire fires and "The water smells like understands the hazards. petroleum, so now we only use "It's not good to breathe the the well water for bathing and smoke from tire fires because it laundry," he said. "We use has sulfur dioxide and benzine bottled water .for everything in it," he said. "The effects of else." breathing in smoke for that The EPA's Schmidt said that many months just aren't almost all of the wells in the known." area have been checked — and Schmidt said residents "they're all coming up clean." should treat smoke from the tire However, Foley said she fire just as they would other would look into the matter with smoke. If they smell it strongly, O'Hagan. he said, they should go inside Just the smell of burning their homes. tires itself ishorrible," she said. "But there's absolutely nothing And so they do. to make us believe that any One neighbor, who did not wells have been impacted." want her name used in a story, If O'Hagan's well is said, "The smell is so strong, contaminated, which officials sometimes that I go around and say is unlikely, it could mean check to see if my appliances that the tire fire contaminated are heating up. And then I the groundwater. Testing of the remember.The tire fire."