A fire started in a non-empty cell at a landfill at around 5:00 a.m. A plume of smoke could be seen from outside the facility. Upon arriving at the facility at 5:20 a.m., a worker reported the fire to the operations manager, who cut the biogas network and notified the on-call team and the firefighters. The on-call team used inert materials that were on hand to smother the fire. At the same time, the firefighters cooled down the area with hoses. The fire was contained at around 7:00 a.m. The security firm carried out patrols for 72 hours.
The fire burnt a 400 m² area. A biogas pit and the pipe connecting it to a manifold were destroyed. A 50 m² portion of a geomembrane facing was burnt. The active barrier was left intact. Material damage was estimated at €18,000. The 30 m³ of firewater used and contained in the waste mass was treated with the leachate at the facility’s wastewater treatment plant.
The fire, which began on one side of the cell, started on the final layer of compacted waste added the day before and hauled in from landfills and waste transit facilities. Prohibited waste hidden in the mass of incoming waste may have started the fire. The operator said that the possibility of a criminal act could not be ruled out, especially since the teams identified two separate seats of fire and driving rain had drenched the site the night before.
The operator repaired the geomembrane facing, rebuilt the biogas pit and repaired its connection to the manifold.
The emergency response plan for listed sites (ETARE) is scheduled to be updated in 2019. Although it has been developed jointly by the operator and emergency services, the firefighters were not aware of its existence. One of their response vehicles was not suited to driving on rough roads.
Lastly, the accident revealed a reading fault on the thermal imaging camera. Such issued had been encountered in the past. The entire video alert system will be reviewed and improved in December 2018.
The site has already been the scene of multiple fires, with the last one occurring in July 2018 (ARIA 38829, 38830, 47016, 47966, 51936).
