Newport City Council has closed its household waste recycling centre (HWRC) on Docks Way, Maesglas, following a fire at the site.

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service was called to the HWRC at around 5 p.m. on Monday (4 May), after receiving reports of a fire issuing from a waste storage building at the location.

On arrival, fire crews determined that around 50 tonnes of household waste was alight in the 20 metre by 80 metre storage building, and used two water jets, two housing jets and two ground monitors to tackle the blaze.

One crew and a water bowser remained at the scene overnight to dampen down the site, while on-site contractors moved ‘large quantities of waste’ away from the seat of the fire to prevent spread.

The fire service told Resource today that the crew left the scene at around 10 a.m. this morning, and determined that the cause of the fire was ‘accidental’. There were no reported injuries.

A spokesperson for the council stated that the fire was located in “a holding centre for 200 tonnes of predominately household waste in transit to its disposal”.

He commented: “The location of the waste transfer station is remote from public buildings and there is no considered threat to the public’s health and safety. A decision has been taken, for operational reasons, to close the household waste recycling centre at Docks Way until further notice. The waste disposal site is also closed to commercial vehicles. It is anticipated, however, that the centre will resume normal services shortly and regular updates will be provided.”

The council noted that residents may “experience a short delay” in their waste collections, and apologised for the “inconvenience that this may cause”.

Increasing amount of waste site fires

The incident marks the latest outbreak of fire at waste sites in recent days, with Viridor and JWS Waste both experiencing fires at their waste sites in the past two weeks, which in turn followed on from five blazes at waste sites over Easter bank holiday. Further to this, it had previously been estimated that there is an average of one fire per day at waste and recycling sites.

In an attempt to prevent fires from occurring, the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum issued new guidance last year to help waste site operators reduce fire risk.

Endorsed by the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA), and developed with input from the Environment Agency (EA), the Environmental Services Association (ESA), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Health and Safety Laboratories (HSL), and other bodies, the guidance outlines how best to safely manage the storage of materials susceptible to combustion.

The Operations Director of the CFOA, Roy Wilsher, said that the guidance was “hugely useful”.

Find out more about the problems of waste site fires.