There should be no rush to think that fires are becoming a big problem for the waste sector again despite recent incidents, the chair of the sector’s WISH forum has said.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Chris Jones, who chairs the Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISH), said today that he agreed that there had been a spate of fires in the waste sector recently.
Waste ashes from barbecues and disposable barbecues can be a cause of waste fires (picture: Shutterstock)
This comes after there had been a relatively quiet period in terms of fires earlier this year.
But, he cautioned that it is always tempting to see several events “occurring together as being linked or as an example of some underlying broader change. Sometimes they are linked and sometimes it’s just normal statistical variation. At this stage I don’t think we are in a place to know if the recent fires are connected at some level, or just it is just serendipity that they have happened together.”
Mr Jones also explained that there has been a long spell of dry weather across the UK and fires of all types (not just in waste) are more likely after such a period.
Barbecues
One recent fire, at W&S Recycling in Dorset has seen a disposable barbeque in waste given as a potential cause for the blaze, with barbeques confirmed by Mr Jones as a source of waste fires.
“We typically see a ‘spike’ in waste fires in the days after the Easter holiday.”
Chris Jones
Chair, WISH forum
He remarked: “We typically see a ‘spike’ in waste fires in the days after the Easter holiday, which is usually attributed to the public getting out into the garden for the first time, clearing dry and decayed wood and vegetation; putting the ashes from burning of same, and the remnants of barbecues into their residual waste. Even if such material isn’t actually hot there is evidence that previously burned or partially combusted material is much more likely/easier to ignite.”
In terms of fires happening recently he said on the balance of probability, it is most likely to just be the long dry spell and statistical variation. “Despite numerous attempts to find trends and link causation in the waste fires data each year is slightly different and any trends are weak and do not appear every year.”
Apart from his role at WISH, Mr Jones is director of risk management and compliance at Cory Riverside Energy.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
