A reported seventy fire-fighters were called out to the scene, which, according to investigation officers was caused by "combustion within a delivery of refuse earlier on Sunday". The fire remained undetected for some hours due to part failing fire protection systems. Leeds City Council confirmed: "Not all the site’s fire protection system were working" and this matter, says the Council "is currently being investigated". Circumstances causing the fire are not deemed to be suspicious.

Kirkstall Road Transfer Loading Station, which deals with around 80% of Leeds’ waste - amounting to about about 230,000 tonnes of waste a year, caught fire on Sunday night. The blaze soon spread to part of an attached MRF and now, four days later, fire-fighters continue to keep a "smouldering fire" under control.

Damage
A Council spokesperson described how the fire spread, but was quickly contained. "By 11.p.m the fire had been contained to the Transfer Loading Station which had suffered major structural damage. The fire was difficult to initially contain as the reception halls within the station are used to store domestic refuse prior to its transfer to Landfill."

By 2.00am the West Yorkshire Fire Service reduced its operation to concentrate on damping down the residual waste fires, an exercise they expect will continue until later today.

The Kirkstall site, based in West Leeds includes a transfer loading station, a materials reclamation facility, household waste site and weighbridge facilities; receiving both household and commercial waste.

Collections
Although collection services – performed by the Council, are not affected, the fire is thought to cause disruption to the site as it remains closed until further notice. Public use areas of the site remain undamaged and include recycling facilities and a bulky item drop-off area, with these parts expected to re-open to next week. Residents and businesses wishing to use such facilities in the meantime are being re-directed to other sites including: Meanwood Road, Beckett Street on Stanley Road or Calverley Bridge sites and a Seacroft based site in East Leeds, which is over five miles from Kirkstall.

Repairs
The Transfer Loading Station will need major repairs before it can be decommissioned but no details have been stipulated on how deep repair costs might cut.

The Council said of its transfer loading operation: "It is a key element in the refuse collection for the area, and operation will be reconfigured to ensure all the Council’s refuse collection services continue." Leeds City Council is negotiating with the Environment Agency, partners that own other landfill sites and recycling centres in which to take the remaining waste recovered from the fire to.

The MRF is used to bale all sort bin material collected by the Council prior to it being transported away for recycling and has suffered fire damage to the roof structure and water damage to the rest of the unit. One side of the building, which forms part of the MRF operation, has been damaged. All vehicles and trailers were removed early in the incident and are not known to have been damaged.