CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Army veteran Le Roy Torres describes the threat of burn pits as “the invisible enemy,” a danger he says followed him home from Iraq and continues to shape the lives of thousands of service members who served near burn pits – the massive, open-air fires used to dispose of everything from plastic and tires to medical waste and spent munitions.
During his deployment to Balad, Iraq, Torres says a 10-acre burn pit near his base burned day and night, fed with trash produced by more than 20,000 personnel. The pit was regularly ignited with jet fuel, producing thick, toxic smoke.
“It was like a ten acre size landfill, all your daily consumption trash is put in there, plus medical waste, spent munitions, tires, thousands and thousands plastic bottles,” he said. “So all of that in one massive pit, ten acres, and then doused with JPA fuel and ignited. We ingested it, we inhaled it.”…