Lithium battery caused fire at Guernsey Recycling last year

At the height of incident last Summer there were 23 firefighters on the scene Credit: ITV Channel TV

A lithium battery caused the fire at Guernsey Recycling last year, a report has found.

At the height of incident on 3 August 2018 there were 23 firefighters on the scene. It took just under two hours to contain the fire and 13 hours to extinguish it completely.

A report by the island's Chief Fire Officer has found the process used for removing batteries from electrical waste was not adequate, after batteries were found in storage containers on site a week after the incident.

Recommendations are now being made to prevent this happening again.

Members of the public are currently required to take out all batteries from electric waste before putting items into containers.

However the report found the public were not complying, and were leaving hazardous batteries in containers.

Now States workers are being told to take the items from members of the public and to separate the batteries themselves.

Recommendations include:

  • A full review of the handling of hazardous material

  • Raising public awareness of the dangers of disposing of hazardous material in an inappropriate way

  • The Guernsey Fire & Rescue Service should be fully consulted in the creation of a new Fire Plan for the site

  • The incident should be used to create a realistic training simulation to develop experience of dealing with major fires

  • Reviewing the operating licence for Guernsey Recycling to minimise risk of environmental pollution