Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service was called to Hills Waste Solutions’s mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facility in Wiltshire on Tuesday evening (18 March) to tackle a fire that had broken out at the Northacre Resource Recovery Centre (NRRC).

Four fire engines from Trowbridge, Warminster, and Bradford on Avon (supported by an incident command vehicle from Devizes), and members of the South Western Ambulance Service, were mobilised to the blaze on Northacre Industrial Estate at 8.13pm.

However, the fire was contained to one area of the MBT plant, and the facility’s in-built ‘fire-suppression system’ reportedly quickly limited the damage to the building and the surrounding environment, allowing the fire service to fully extinguish the blaze later that evening.

No one was injured in the fire and no damage was sustained to either the building or equipment at the site. The facility resumed operations on Wednesday morning, as usual.

‘The sprinkler system saved the day’

Station Manager Richard Humphrey, who attended the incident, said: "The sprinkler system saved the day – a number of sprinkler heads were operating, containing the fire to one area, although the building was heavily smoke logged.

“Six firefighters in breathing apparatus used water jets to surround and extinguish the fire. Firefighters then worked with the on-site team and their machinery to dig out and dampen down around 150 tonnes of household waste.

"Had it not been for the sprinkler system containing the fire, there would've been much more material involved and we would've been here for many more hours.”

Mike Webster, Group Director of Hills Waste Solutions, added: “We are grateful to our staff on site who reacted quickly to the situation and put in place the agreed emergency procedures, and to the fire service for attending promptly.

"The fire suppression system installed at Northacre uses some of the latest technology and its efficiency has been proven by this incident.”

Hills Waste Solutions said it is working with the fire service to carry out investigations into the cause of the fire.

The NRRC became fully operational in December 2013 after an ‘extensive commissioning phase’. Operated by Hills Waste Solutions, the MBT plant, which cost £24 million to construct, has the capacity to process the 60,000 tonnes of household waste produced by Wiltshire households, in accordance with Hills’s 25-year contract with Wiltshire Council.

The waste is then used to create solid recovered fuel (SRF) for use in renewable energy plants.

Tackling waste fires

Waste site fires are commonplace, with figures released last year showing that between 2001 and 2012, the average rate of fires at waste and recycling works came in at just under one per day.

Further to the environmental and social damage that waste fires cause, the cost of clearing up such fires is extensive; the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has revealed that emergency services in Scotland spent £15.9 million tackling 8,000 waste fires in 2012/13.

The Environment Agency has released guidance aimed at reducing the outbreak of fire at waste storage sites. Prepared in partnership with the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA), the new Technical Guidance Note (TGN), ‘Reducing Fire Risk at Sites Storing Combustible Materials’, identifies a range of measures that operators of waste storage sites should implement to minimise the risk of fire.

Read more about Hills Waste Solutions’s NRRC.