A major incident was narrowly avoided last week at a recycling plant in South Tyneside where a fire broke out.
Frustrated firefighters from Tyne and Wear Fire Rescue Services (TWFRS) battled a blaze at the Middlefields Recycling Village in South Shields after receiving a call at 6.07pm on Friday. After 25 minutes putting out the rubbish fire, they discovered that the sources of the fire was flares activated by two discarded marine buoys.
It is believed that they had been incorrectly discarded into one of the skips on site. These had been discarded in domestic waste and now a senior firefighter has warned that this type of material should not just be thrown in the bin.
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Andrew Nelson, station manager at TWFRS, said: "The early detection of the fire by quick thinking council staff, and the swift actions of our firefighters, has prevented a potentially serious fire from occurring. To avoid this happening again we would urge marine enthusiasts and residents to correctly discard of their specialist equipment, and not to use regular household refuse outlets to disperse of the materials.
"If flares and pyrotechnics are discarded inappropriately they have the potential to inadvertently activate, which could result in the ignition of nearby combustible materials. If a major fire had taken place at this premises, the overall risk to residents and council staff, and the potential knock-on effects to the local environment, could be devastating."
Councillor Ernest Gibson, lead member for Transport and Neighbourhoods at South Tyneside Council, said: " Incidents such as this really highlight the dangers of not disposing of specialist or hazardous items correctly, the damage that they can cause and the risk it poses to the safety of others. Had it not been for the quick-thinking waste officers at Middlefields, the consequences could have been disastrous."
Fortunately, nobody was injured during the incident. The crew left the scene at 6.39pm and returned to the South Shields Community Fire Station.
Residents are now being urged not to put specialist items such as boat flares in their general waste or recycling bins, or in the general waste and recycling skips at the recycling village. According to TWFRS, they should instead contact their supplier in the first instance about their safe disposal, while specialist waste disposal companies can also be contacted directly.
However, other hazardous items such as batteries and gas canisters can be safely disposed of at the Recycling Village using the dedicated facilities for such products. For further information about the types of waste that can be correctly discarded at South Tyneside Council's Middlefields Recycling Village, visit the website.
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