ORRINGTON, Maine (WABI) – Firefighters gave us an overview of their efforts at the press conference early Thursday afternoon.

They say they're doing the same thing they did on Wednesday – namely keeping the fire going and putting out hotspots as best they can.

We're told the ultimate goal is to deploy heavy machinery so they can begin digging into the pile of trash and get to the source of the flames.

But for now they are still acting defensively from the outside as there are still structural concerns about the building.

“We expect this fire to be a multi-day event. At this point, given the progress we're making, we still have several days left before we can even think about calling this done. We are doing this with limited personnel to again confine it to the area and limit exposure to the public,” said Fire Chief Scott Stewart of the Town of Orrington.

Almost 48 hours after it began, around-the-clock efforts are still underway to completely extinguish the fire, which lies buried deep in a large pile of rubbish on the dumping ground.

In the meantime, we're hearing lots of questions from viewers about health and safety concerns.

We reached out to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for answers.

According to the Maine DEP, they collected samples from the river on Wednesday.

We are still waiting for the results of this test.

Meanwhile, DEP and EPA have been conducting air monitoring since Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoon we learned of the results of these tests.

According to the EPA, the air samples they collected show “no levels of concern” on chemical-specific sensors.

No significant amounts of mercury or radiation were detected either.

However, due to smoke in the air, the DEP classifies the air quality as “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

“The EPA is on site and has conducted multiple AreaRAE tests around the facility as well as dust and particulate collection. And they didn't find anything dangerous on site. “Once again, nothing dangerous was found at certain monitoring stations near cities,” said Orrington City Manager Chris Backman.

Officials will meet with members of the media again at 10 a.m. Friday morning.

We plan to broadcast this live on air and on our website.

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