Janice,
You might wish to recheck your maps. The closed dump is located between Villa Park and the City of Orange. If you've ever driven by there, you see all the venting popping up like so many prairie dogs. There's also a closed dump on the other side of Irvine Lake off Santiago Canyon, but the fire didn't even burn there.
<a href="http://www.oclandfills.com/landfill_santiago.asp"><em>Integrated Waste Management</em></a>
<em><img width="1" height="10" alt="" src="http://www.oclandfills.com/images/spacer.gif" /></em>
<em>Santiago Canyon Landfill</em>
<em><img width="1" height="10" alt="" src="http://www.oclandfills.com/images/spacer.gif" /></em>
<em>Landfill Closing</em>
<em>The Santiago Canyon Landfill closure construction was completed on 30 November 2004. It is currently not accepting waste. Santiago Canyon is located near the city of Orange, in east Orange County, north of Loma Ridge in the Santa Ana Mountain foothills and adjacent to the <strong>west side of Irvine Lake</strong>.</em>
Thanks for the drama, though. Not.
<em>>>Most closed dumps generate highly explosive and highly flammable methane gas.</em>
And it would be much better for the environment if they could recapture those gases and return the methane to the natural gas system or use it for fueling vehicles. Oh, and on it's own, methane isn't explosive. It needs an ignition. Otherwise, when released it floats into the air and separates, as it is lighter than air. You might wish to revise that statement to "highly flammable" only.
Out of sheer curiosity, what do you propose we do with these closed dumps? You can't really dig them up and put them someplace else.