Fire at Farington Waste Recovery Park in Leyland was caused by rechargeable battery, Lancashire County Council says
A “ferocious” fire at a recycling centre in Leyland that was hot enough to melt metal was caused by a rechargeable battery, Lancashire County Council said.
The fire started in a metal storage skip at the Farington Waste Recovery Park in Flensburg Way shortly before 5pm on Saturday (November 4).
The blaze, which was hot enough to melt metal, took firefighters around two hours to extinguish.
Lancashire County Council said the fire was the third this year caused by batteries.
County Coun Shaun Turner, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change said: “It is so important that all lithium ion/rechargeable batteries are disposed of in the right way, as this is the third blaze this year started by one at our sites.
“They can cause fires if they are damaged or crushed, leading to potentially deadly consequences – and this can occur at any time, as this fire in a storage skip demonstrates.
“Batteries of all sizes can explode and set off fires, making them a very difficult item to handle.
“Please recycle these responsibly – including ones in items you may not have considered, such as vapes, electric toothbrushes and singing birthday cards.”
The incident followed a similar blaze at the Preston Transfer Station in June which affected around one tonne of cardboard.
In April, another fire caused around 40 tonnes of recycling products to be lost as they had to be disposed of.
Batteries can be taken to local recycling centres or to most supermarkets, which tend to have recycling bins.