Fire crews have battled for six hours to control a fire in an excavator on top of a large pile of scrap timber at Riverstone.
Firefighters responded to reports the excavator was alight at a timber yard on Riverstone Parade about 1.10 pm on Tuesday, February 20, arriving to find the 30 tonne excavator fully involved in fire, located on the top of a 650 cubic metre, 150 tonne pile of scrap timber.
“The timber in the pile was in the process of being recycled, by being mulched and used in the manufacture of particle board,” Fire and Rescue NSW duty commander for western Sydney, Inspector Kernin Lambert said.
There was no water supply on the site and the closest hydrant was cut off by the railway line, preventing firefighters laying hose lines to the fire, Inspector Lambert said.
The excavator contained large quantities of diesel fuel and hydraulic oil and fire crews had concerns that if the tanks containing the liquids ruptured, there would be a significant escalation in fire activity.
Additional crews were called to the scene, and Rural Fire Service bulk water tankers responded to provide water supplies to Fire and Rescue engines.
“A 37 metre ladder platform aerial appliance from Parramatta was set up on the northern side of the fire and began to fight the burning excavator fire with firefighting foam,” Inspector Lambert said.
“Firefighters operating the aerial appliance wore breathing apparatus, due to thick plumes of smoke being produced by the fire. Hazardous Materials firefighters responded to the scene to set up dams around the site to collect water escaping the fire, ensuring no environmental damage to local waterways occurred.
“Following extinguishment of the excavator fire, a large fire continued to burn deep within the timber stack pile. Working under the direction of firefighters, staff from the site used a second excavator to begin to dig down into the timber pile, reaching the burning materials, enabling firefighters to extinguish the burning timber.”
Firefighters used highly specialised extinguishing agent known as Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) to control and put out the fire. Specialist CAFS appliances from Mount Druitt, Glebe, St Andrews and Springwood responded to the fire.
“This fire took approximately six hours of exhaustive, intense and at times dangerous firefighting to bring under control,” Inspector Lambert said. “Allowing the fire to simply “burn out” was not an option at this fire; the very dry surrounding area meant that if the fire had of grown out of control, it would have produced a large amount of embers for days that could have ignited numerous fires in the surrounding areas.”
A mechanical fault associated with the engine of the excavator is believed to have started the blaze, and firefighters were able to save most of the timber stock.
“Due to the very hard of firefighters, fire spread to surrounding stock, materials, plant and equipment was able to be stopped, enabling the business to continue operating following the fire with minimal disruption,” Inspector Lambert said. “No impact to the surrounding community occurred. No firefighters were injured fighting this fire.”
