The fire at the Sarimukti landfill in Indonesia’s West Java province - which serves the city of Bandung, home to 2.5 million people - has been burning since Tuesday, writes France24.

At least 67 people who live near the landfill have been diagnosed with mild respiratory infections and two were hospitalised due to the effects of the toxic fire, according to a local health clinic.

At least 30 fire trucks have battled to contain the fire at the 25-hectare site with no success, with authorities blaming high temperatures and strong winds for keeping it ablaze. It forced the local government to declare a 21-day state of emergency in the area, West Java regent Hengky Kurniawan said.

Sprawling Indonesian cities on its most populated island Java lack modern waste management infrastructure to process hoards of solid trash produced each day.

West Java governor Ridwan Kamil said that the country’s geophysics agency was attempting weather modification in the area, “so hopefully we will have rain” to douse the inferno.