Investigations are under way after a Wandsworth recycling centre run by Cory Environmental caught fire for the second time in a week.

Around 300 tonnes of domestic waste caught fire at the Smugglers Way site in West London yesterday (25 July) afternoon. At its height 12 fire engines and around 80 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade (LFB) were required to tackle the blaze, with two engines still at the scene this morning damping down.

The LFB was called at 3.30 in the afternoon, and it took until just after midnight for crews from Wandsworth, Fulham, Tooting, Clapham, Chelsea, Kensington, Battersea, Hammersmith, Soho and Wimbledon fire stations to get the fire under control.

Station Manager Darren Levett, who attended the incident, said: "The fire was very visible and produced a lot of smoke which could be seen for miles around. Crews worked hard to contain the fire and as a precaution we advised people to keep their doors and windows closed."

The cause of the fire is under investigation, and the fact that a fire also broke out last Thursday (21 July) will come into consideration.

The site houses a materials recycling facility (MRF) and a household waste recycling centre (HWRC).

The single storey MRF takes material from household collections across four London boroughs under a contract with the Western Riverside Waste Authority (WRWA). Sorting up to 84,000 tonnes a year Hammersmith and Fulham, Lambeth, Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The HWRC provides a facility of local residents to drop off recyclable materials that are not part of their kerbside collection service.

According to the WRWA, Monday’s fire took place in the HWRC, while Thursday's fire affected the MRF. The causes of both fires are currently under investigation.

A statement from the LFB said that a sprinkler system helped save the site on Thursday night, as it helped to control the fire until crews arrived. 41 people were forced to evacuate the building at around 9pm as the fire broke out, damaging a compressor conveyor belt.

Crews from Wandsworth, Battersea, Tooting and Fulham were called to the scene and had the incident under control by 22.45.

Nobody was hurt in the first fire and material destined for the MRF was collected and transferred to a third party sorter while the Smugglers Way facility was shut down. Due to the damage to some of the machinery onsite it had not yet restarted operations by Monday night.

Waste site fires commonplace

Fires at waste sites are commonplace, with figures released in 2013 showing that between 2001 and 2012, the average rate of fires at waste and recycling works came in at just under one per day.

In an attempt to prevent fires from occurring, the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum has issued guidance to help waste site operators reduce fire risk, which Operations Director of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association, Roy Wilsher, said was “hugely useful”.

Find out more about waste fire guidance.