More than a hundred firefighters and about 30 response vehicles are currently on the scene of a massive factory fire which is slowly being contained by crews from Fire and Rescue NSW and the Rural Fire Service in the Spring Farm area.
Crews were called to the Spring Farm Advanced Resource Recovery Facility at around 11.30am, where a fire broke out within a waste pit.
FRNSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said firefighters had been able to co-ordinate and react effectively despite the size of the blaze.
“Firefighters are making good progress, we have a fire in a waste transfer facility, it’s an extremely large shed – probably about 100 metres long, maybe a bit longer,” he said.
“We have more than 100 firefighters battling this blaze, and we do have it contained. However, it is going to smoulder for some time.”
Superintendent Dewberry said thermal imaging had been able to locate the fire “in a pit,” which makes the situation “very difficult” for response teams.
He also confirmed police and paramedics were on scene as a precaution, and the EPA was also present for the purposes of monitoring water run-off into the surrounding areas.
The processing centre is the largest building on a 38-acre site which is dedicated to “sorting, processing and transferring general, liquid and mixed solid waste, organic material, glass and other recyclable materials,” according to the homepage of Veolia, the company that runs the centre.
Superintendent Dewberry confirmed lithium batteries were present on site “in the process of being recycled or disposed off,” although the blaze had been cut off before reaching the items.
“Operations are expected to go for some time but this fire is pretty well contained. Once we get the fire out we’ll start to have a look at where this fire actually ignited.”
