Discarded battery caused garbage site fire: Chief
The Recorder & Times
Members of the public are being urged not to throw out batteries with their regular trash after yet another fire at a north-end waste transfer station.
No one was injured as Brockville firefighters contained a blaze within a waste transfer building at the Waste Management property on California Avenue Tuesday morning.
“It’s the same location that we’ve had multiple fires over the last couple of years,” said Interim Fire Chief Chris Paul.
“This is the third or fourth time we’ve been (there) in the last two years.”
In each case, he added, the culprit has been the same: A lithium ion battery carelessly discarded with the regular trash, which exploded after being inadvertently driven over by a large machine like a front end loader.
“People aren’t disposing of their batteries properly and they end up in a garbage pile like that,” said the acting chief.
Once they explode, the batteries smoulder in the typically large fuel load to be found in a waste transfer building, in this case a 25-foot pile of garbage made up largely of construction waste like wood, insulation, and drywall.
Brockville firefighters got the call at 7:12 a.m., and 14 firefighters responded in three vehicles to the site, which was already expelling plenty of smoke over the north end, said Paul. They had the blaze under control by 9:15, and remained on the scene a further 90 minutes after that.
The fire happened during a shift change, and other firefighters were called in to cover at the city’s two stations for what proved to be a busy morning of smaller calls, said the acting chief.
Waste Management employees were invaluable in their help, using their heavy equipment to clear out the area, said Paul.
Employees also helped divert runoff from the large volume of water being poured on the fire, added the interim chief.
The transfer building remained intact after the fire was out, he said.
But while the damage was contained, these kinds of garbage fires are a potential environmental hazard and they are happening at similar sites across the country, added Paul.
While the interim chief urged people to be careful with all batteries being disposed of, Erik Lefebvre, Waste Management’s district manager for the area, said lithium ion batteries, of the kind used for household power tools, are the main culprit.
“Transfer stations everywhere are dealing with it more and more,” said Lefebvre.
“Make sure your lithium ion batteries don’t go in the trash.”
At city council’s general committee meeting Tuesday afternoon, Coun. Jane Fullarton, the committee chairwoman, announced that the city has delayed garbage pickup by a day for the remainder of the week.