100 workers evacuated after fire erupts at recycling plant
One hundred people were evacuated from a recycling centre yesterday afternoon after a fire erupted across 300 tonnes of waste.
Six fire engines and about 40 firefighters tackled the blaze at the recycling plant in Devon Street, near the Old Kent Road in Southwark.
Crews arrived at the scene at around 12.30pm to discover a fire spreading throughout a single-storey tipping hall.
About 100 workers at the Southwark Integrated Waste Management Facility, run by Veolia and Southwark council, were evacuated before firefighters arrived.
There have been no reports of any injuries, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.
Incident Commander Tom Ronan said: “Firefighters worked hard to extinguish deep-seated pockets of fire within a pile of waste.
“We also worked closely with the site operator to put out the blaze, with staff using shovel loaders to remove piles of recycling.
“Firefighters remained on the scene into the evening to fully extinguish the fire.”
Firefighters from New Cross, Old Kent Road, Peckham and Deptford fire stations brought the blaze under control by around 5.45pm.
The fire was contained within a building, but people living in South Bermondsey and Peckham were advised to keep their windows and doors shut as smoke travelled across the area.
The LFB has said the fire was most likely caused by the failure of a lithium-ion battery in the waste.
A LFB spokesman said: “Lithium-ion battery fires are a major risk. We’ve seen a growing number of fires at waste disposal sites that are believed to have been caused by a lithium battery.
“Although lithium-ion battery products that have been built to a poor standard are a higher fire risk, any battery is at risk of exploding and catching fire if it has been crushed or becomes damaged. Lithium-ion battery fires can be ferocious and can spread in seconds.
“Fires that we attend at sites like recycling centres and scrap yards can be very time consuming for our firefighters and often require a high level of resources to put the fire out.
“We’ve also seen the detrimental environmental and societal impact these fires can have on local communities.”
The LFB has urged the public not to put any electrical goods which may contain hidden lithium-ion batteries in the same bins as regular rubbish or recycling.
Pictured top: The fire spread across a warehouse containing 300 tonnes of waste (Picture: LFB)