As the risk of battery-related fires increases in waste and resource recovery facilities, an engineered solution is helping to keep them safe.
Three key phrases are often repeated by Fire Rover customers – risk reduction, peace of mind and asset protection.
“The waste and recycling industry is facing a surge in fires caused by batteries,” says Scott Russ, National Business Development Manager for Wastech Engineering. “The Fire Rover detects a heat source and stops it before it turns into something dangerous.
“Within seconds, it will pick up variations of heat in waste material and send an alarm to the control centre, which then immediately looks at the cameras to determine what’s going on.
“Customers are paying for a 24/7 monitoring service for Fire Rover to make the determination of the next steps. You could potentially have an incident that is over and done with before you even know about it.”
There are between 10,000 and 12,000 battery-related fires a year across waste and recycling facilities in Australia, according to an industry survey.
The survey, released in June 2024 by the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) and the Waste Contractors and Recyclers Association (WCRA), estimates costs of more than $400,000 for facilities that experienced battery-related fire and heat events in the past 12 months.
Aside from the financial impact – including facility damage, rebuilding and clean-up costs – these events interrupt business and cause a loss of revenue.
Scott says the Fire Rover Fire Suppression System is a key piece of the puzzle to reducing major fires and a game changer for the industry.
Wastech Engineering, exclusive distributors of the Fire Rover in Australia and New Zealand, recently installed Fire Rover’s fire suppression system at Re.Group’s facility in Dandenong, Victoria, a busy waste management site handling 65 trucks of waste daily.
The system, featuring three 20-foot containers with multiple cameras and nozzles, has been well-received, leading to commitments for additional installations in Sydney and other Australian sites.
Scott says what’s unique about the Fire Rover is the environmentally friendly F500 fire suppression agent. With a density of nearly 100 times more than water, the agent acts as a foam blanket, neutralising the threat of fire within seconds.
“Fire Rover is setting a new benchmark in safety at Re.Group, a critical recycling site,” he says.
“With Fire Rover, the Dandenong recycling facility has improved safety for site teams and first responders, protected valuable equipment and infrastructure, minimised fire-related disruptions and has 24/7 protection.
“Re.Group can rest assured that the facility is secure, even in high-risk environments.”
The Fire Rover is an engineered solution for specific facilities. Scott says the Re.Group project had particular challenges, including limited space and installation at a site that operated 24 hours a day, six days a week.
“Working around existing infrastructure like a material recovery facility (MRF) is not easy,” he says.
“We designed a number of versions to get the ultimate setup for Re.Group. As you can imagine, a 20-foot container within a MRF does take up space, so we had to put it in the right location.
“And we could only install the system on a weekend when the facility was a lot quieter.”
Following installation, Wastech works with facility staff to ensure they understand the system and can work in tandem with it.
One unique aspect of the Fire Rover is the installation of emergency buttons in key locations throughout facilities so if staff do notice something unusual, they can quickly alert Fire Rover.
“We work closely with the on-ground staff, so they’re aware how the system works and how they can use it to help their facility,” Scott says.
“Each customer has their own emergency protocols for staff to follow. Fire Rover can be considered the first line of defence prior to the fire department attending.
“If you’re talking about a potential window of five to 30 minutes for a fire department to turn out, a fire can get out of control a lot quicker than that. Fire Rover will engage instantly.”
The Fire Rover system has a built-in battery pack as redundancy for a power outage and 4G backup for internet outages. If either are activated, it is included in a quarterly customer report that outlines all alarm activations and callouts.
Wastech Engineering has offered the Fire Rover since 2022. Scott says momentum is building as recycling and resource recovery operations look to protect their infrastructure from rising contamination of waste streams.
“People are just not educated enough in Australia about how to handle batteries,” he says. “That’s one of the big issues.”
Re.Group Chief Development Officer Garth Lamb says the main game is getting hazardous items and batteries out of household bins, but in the meantime the company continues to do all it can to manage risks at its sites.
“The ability to retrofit this rapid-fire suppression system at an operating site with minimal service disruption is a key benefit to helping us address this huge problem,” he says.
Wastech Engineering has installed a Fire Rover system at a transfer station in North Sydney, a transfer station in Western Australia, an e-waste recycler in Sydney and is about to install a first system in New Zealand.
The system has also proved successful in rural and remote areas where hardwired internet connectivity is an issue.
The Fire Rover can work via Starlink – a satellite network developed by private spaceflight company SpaceX to provide low-cost internet to remote locations.
The Fire Rover is currently geared toward material recovery facilities, transfer stations, waste stockpiles, construction and demolition waste, waste-to-energy, electronic scrap and more.
A landfill-specific version called the OnWatch has been launched in America to early detect and verify fires on the working face of a landfill, outdoor stockpiles and windrows.
Scott is now keen to lobby Australian fire regulators and insurance companies to recognise that the Fire Rover containerised solution is a compliant system, with the hope it could eventually help reduce insurance premiums.
“If we can get it compliant, it would be a massive game changer.”
For more information, visit:
www.wastech.com.au
