A blaze erupted at a Lovely Banks timber recycling centre on Sunday evening with firefighters working overnight to extinguish it.
About 20 trucks responded to an emergency call about 9pm and about 70 firefighters brought the blaze under control by 4.30am on Monday.
The fire reached about 625 square metres in area and 4m in height after it engulfed a timber mulch pile, a CFA spokesperson said.
The effort to subdue the blaze at the Staceys Rd centre included several tankers due to a lack of local water supply.
Two trucks remained onsite on Monday morning as crews used machinery to pull apart a timber pile to hose down “hotspots”, a CFA spokesperson said.
“The wind is making that work difficult.”
Environment Protection Authority (EPA) was investigating the site on Monday to determine if any breaches of the Environment Protection Act had occurred.
EPA issued an $8060 fine to the occupier of the timber recycling site, Natjons Constructions, on 6 February.
Resource Recovery Facilities Audit Taskforce detected unsafe stockpiles at the site last year, an EPA spokesperson said.
EPA in October issued a legally-binding notice for the operator to manage its stockpiles, but the company’s non-compliance resulted in the fine.
EPA Victoria south west manager Carolyn Francis in February said loose stockpiles of combustible timber waste at the site could pose a fire threat.
“If those stockpiles ignited, firefighters could face major challenges protecting the health and environmental safety of the surrounding area,” she said at the time.
EPA was unable to confirm on Monday if the fire was related to the issues identified in the notice.
The authority would continue its investigation into the fire, its spokesperson said.
The investigation would determine EPA’s next steps under its enforcement policy, the spokesperson said.
“EPA is continuing inspections at this site and others like it to ensure compliance with the policy to reduce the risk that a fire could cause to the community and the environment.
“The Waste Management Policy was introduced in August 2017 giving industry ample time to understand how to be compliant with it.
“EPA takes a zero-tolerance approach to non-compliance against the Waste Management Policy requirements and expects the recycling industry to take its compliance obligations seriously.”
