Ignoring small, frequent fires is the fastest way to lose an entire waste facility. Jill Lethlean, Director of Lethlean Fire and Environment, explains.
Minor fire incidents are an unfortunate reality across the Australian waste industry. For many facility managers, a small, quickly extinguished fire in a pit, processing line, or stockpile is a cost of doing business – an inevitable nuisance that is swiftly contained.
This mindset, however, ignores the “hazard pyramid”: the principle that if a consistent log of small fires ensures, eventually, one will become uncontrollable.
According to Jill Lethlean, Director of Lethlean Fire and Environment, this tension between routine containment and catastrophic loss is one that the industry must address.
“Fires might be small, but they are never insignificant,” Jill says. “The thing is that if you have enough small fires, sooner or later, one will get away from you, and you’re going to end up with a very large fire, and you could lose your whole facility. So, it is worth taking seriously.”
The expense of a major fire is not limited to the loss of a facility itself. It includes loss of licence, reputational damage, lengthy downtime, and enormous remediation costs. Compared to this potential financial fallout, a thorough fire risk assessment is one of the most cost-effective investments a facility can make.
Jill, a specialist in fire safety engineering with a background in the waste sector, says generic fire safety measures are often insufficient in the waste industry.
Her approach involves evaluating waste facility designs right from the start, providing an understanding of how different waste materials behave in a fire, ensuring designs minimise fire spread and maximise suppression.
The threat of lithium-ion batteries is a textbook example. Unlike conventional waste fires, battery fires are chemically driven and notoriously difficult to extinguish. They are creating a new, severe category of fire hazard that demands updated response readiness.
Jill says that as the use of lithium-ion power has exploded, batteries are finding their way into every type of waste stream imaginable. Facilities that historically considered themselves low risk must now factor in this hazard.
“If they’re collecting waste from kerbside, chances are there’ll be a battery there at some stage,” Jill says. “Batteries are in everything, inside vapes, electric toothbrushes, power tools, and even flashing children’s shoes.”
She says if facilities are not prepared for a battery-related thermal runaway event, which requires unique suppression agents and isolation procedures, a minor incident can quickly escalate, rendering standard equipment useless.
Waste facilities are complex environments with highly specific materials, processes, and stock control methods that vary from site to site. A fire plan for a construction and demolition facility is useless for an organics plant, and vice versa.
Jill says that too often, facility managers expect a fire engineer to walk the site and intuitively understand all the operational nuances. She advocates for a specific, tailored assessment that requires deep engagement from the operators.
“The waste operator must act as an active partner in the assessment, clearly explaining material flows, processing points, peak stockpile volumes, and specific hazard zones,” she says.
“It is important to actually engage with a fire engineer and explain what’s going on. This ensures the resulting fire safety system, be it water cannons, monitoring technology, or operational procedures, is truly fit for purpose.”
For many facilities, a review of fire readiness is only initiated under duress, typically driven by a development application (DA) requirement or a condition attached to their licence.
Jill says facilities that have been operating for years without significant changes often have obsolete fire systems that do not account for modern waste streams, increased volumes, or evolving regulatory compliance standards.
She says the expertise offered by specialists who understand both the engineering standards and the operational realities of a materials recovery facility or transfer station is invaluable. It provides certainty that the system will perform under pressure, protecting the facility’s assets, licence, and employees.
“If the waste facility has been there for a long time and hasn’t changed anything, then there’s a pretty good chance that the fire system is out of date,” Jill says.
“A risk assessment is not that expensive, especially compared to the cost of actually losing a facility.”
For more information, visit: www.lethleanfireandenvironment.com.au
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