Waste management
of not less than £300 per hour could be used per appliance, and for 12 appliances this is £3,600 per hour. Lincolnshire has 38 stations, of which the majority will be retained. If a whole time crew are turned out to one of these incidents, then a retained crew may well have to be mobilised to maintain fire cover. Additional costs may be incurred by claims
from third parties who have been affected by the incident, and the ultimate clean up costs will be met by the polluter. These will be in excess of many businesses’ abilities to cover, and will fall on insurance companies, who will be forced to increase policy costs to cover these potential charges. So far, the biggest penalty handed out
was in early 2017, for a waste fire in Bredbury, Stockport, in 2013 that burned for 41 days, temporarily closing the M60 motorway. Another blaze in Salford in 2014 lasted 19 days. The director of the company, Mr Kilroe, was sentenced to 15 months at Manchester Minshull Crown Court. The Environment Agency said both fires were caused by mismanagement of the site, and this was one of the biggest ever convictions of its kind.
Fire prevention
The Environment Agency has initiated a requirement for a Fire Prevention Plan to be produced for a site, in order for it to be licensed. This is currently only for new and changing licences, but is very likely to be a requirement for all sites. In response to this, the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) and the Fire Protection Association have worked together to help the industry comply with the FSO, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and environmental protection legislation.
In order to assist management of these sites,
the Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum has a range of guidance documents available for all areas of waste management and recycling of waste. The fire prevention guide is WISH Guide 28, which sets out the requirements to be met. The key measures are:
1. Reduce the likelihood of a fire starting. 2. Aim to extinguish a fire within four hours. 3. Reduce the likelihood of a fire spreading on the site and to neighbouring sites.
To achieve these results, a site must be managed to ensure that stockpiles are limited in size and separated from others; ignition sources are identified and controlled; equipment and supplies are maintained and used correctly; site security is enforced; rapid detection of combustion is provided for; and appropriate response is initiated. Site management has to be both initiated and monitored to ensure ongoing compliance. There are some significant similarities
between these requirements and a well managed site in any industry. A fire safety risk assessment is required to ensure compliance with the primary requirement of the person responsible to: ‘take such general fire precautions as will ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of any of his employees; and in relation to relevant persons who are not his employees, take such general precautions as may be reasonably be required in the circumstances of the case to ensure that the premises are safe.’ In the case where such large quantities
of combustible materials may be involved in a fire at a waste site, these ‘relevant people’ are in very large numbers and geographically widespread.
FOCUS
www.frmjournal.com DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018
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