An investigation will be launched after a fire destroyed most of the main warehouse at Canberra's recycling centre on Monday night.
Eighteen fire crews attended the blaze after it broke out at the ACT's Materials Recovery Facility — at the intersection of John Cory Road and Recycling Road in Hume — about 10:40pm.
According to the Emergency Services Agency (ESA), the fire erupted in the warehouse where recycled products collected from households are stored.
Firefighters remained at the scene of the blaze all night, with smoke warnings issued for nearby residents in Canberra's suburbs, as well as in Queanbeyan and Jerrabomberra over the border in New South Wales.
Flames could be seen piercing the roof, and the building appears to be mostly destroyed.
The ESA said the fire could burn for a number of days, due to the nature of the blaze and the compacted materials inside the building.
The ACT government said there were about 150 tonnes of domestic recyling and waste in the building.
'Significant setback for recycling in the ACT'
ACT Fire and Rescue Chief Officer Matthew Mavity said the first fire crew arrived at the scene about 11pm after a member of security staff spotted it on CCTV footage.
"They found a working fire burning outside the building, but it had spread to inside the building," he said.
He said by 11:10pm the fire had progressed to such a degree that the crews switched from an offensive to a defensive strategy in their efforts to control it.
"They abandoned the building and fought the fire from outside," he said.
"We didn't achieve fire control until... about [6am]."
A fire crew remains at the scene and will have to spend the coming days breaking the recycling materials apart and spraying them with water to hose down the fire.
City Services Minister Chris Steel said the event was a "significant setback for recycling in the ACT" and that waste would likely have to be sent interstate until a replacement facility was built.
"At this stage it appears that this facility is a write-off," Mr Steel said.
"The destruction of this facility is a significant setback for recycling in the ACT, but also for six regional councils in NSW [who] send their materials here to be processed."
Mr Steel urged Canberrans to take care when recycling.
"I think this is a really important reminder to the ACT community when they are putting things into their yellow recycle bin, to keep it simple and keep it safe," he said.
"Unfortunately we do see too many dangerous objects being put into the recycling stream that simply shouldn't be there, things like vapes, things like batteries, and even gas cylinders that can cause a hazard and a risk of fire."
The ACT government previously announced it would build a new recycling facility adjacent to the existing one.
Mr Steel said today they would now be looking into moving that project forward.
The community has been asked to avoid the area.
"Residents are asked to keep putting bins out as normal," the ESA said.
"Recycling materials will be temporarily stored in a location at the Mugga Lane landfill while alternate arrangements to manage residential recycling are put in place."
Concerned residents advised to close windows to avoid toxic smoke
ACT Fire and Rescue Superintendent Sam Evans said a "significant investigation" would be launched into the circumstances of the blaze.
"This has been quite a significant fire overnight," he said.
"We're going to have to remove all that product from the extensively fire-damaged facility to get complete extinguishment and experience tells us that this could take a number of days."
He said there was no threat of the fire spreading, but did advise that the smoke was toxic.
"Fire and Rescue consider any smoke to be dangerous, and any sort of carbonaceous material that emits toxic smoke to a degree," he said.
"Now a lot of this is recyclable plastics. Plastics are a petroleum-based product, so that smoke is toxic.
"Most of it is drifting up into the upper atmosphere because we have very light conditions at the moment, but residents particularly [in the] Narrabundah, Woden Valley, Kingston area need to be aware that they may smell the smoke.
"My advice to anybody [who] has any concerns, or any diagnosed breathing difficulties, is that they remain inside their house as much as they can."
No-one was injured as a result of the fire.
