The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were alerted to the fire at 02:35 on Wednesday, 8 February and arrived to a “deep seated” blaze. Crews remained on the scene throughout the weekend, only leaving yesterday (14 February).
The height of the fire saw six appliances and over 40 firefighters in attendance. Scotland Police were also in attendance.
With the fire now out, NWH’s compliance director Ricky Ray said: “We are grateful to the fire service and to our colleagues who successfully implemented our fire plan. We await confirmation of the cause of the fire but suspect it to be a lithium battery brought in on a waste vehicle the evening before.”
Mr Ray continued that the fire was contained to one building, adding that nobody was injured during the incident. “Whilst the site is not yet fully operational, our services remain unaffected as our contingency plans are in place,” he said.
The Glasgow facility comprises a depot and a materials recycling facility which processes material from skip hire, trade, commercial and business.
The NWH Group serves the whole of Scotland and Northeast England from ten sites.
Batteries
Battery fires are a huge issue for the waste and recycling industry, with several fires being put down to lithium-ion batteries. This was most recently highlighted by metal recycler Sackers, which suffered a fire at its facility in Great Blakenham near Ipswich (see letsrecycle.com story).
Alongside several other associations, the British Metals Recycling Association recently pointed out that the problem has “been ignored for too long” (see letsrecycle.com story).
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