A seminar is to be held by the Chief Fire Officer’s Association (CFOA) on the important topic of preventing the outbreak of fire in the waste management industry.
The specialist seminar has been organised in response to major incidents such as one earlier this summer in which a plastics facility in Smethwick was set ablaze by a wandering Chinese lantern. There are a large number of similar incidents in this particular industry, and the CFOA believes that measures, including better fire safety training, risk assessments and management systems, could help to reduce the number of fires.
Peter Butt, the executive director of the Wood Recyclers’ Association, told Materials Recycling World that the seminar will be held in November. He added that it would include recyclers of materials such as paper, plastics, metals and tyres in addition to other waste management areas, and that it would likely include the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Environment Agency (EA) and the Fire Service amongst other regulators.
The Wood Recyclers’ Association also wants the seminar to approve the publishing of specific guidance to be published for its industry and others dealing with very flammable material on an everyday basis.
