Source: Sunshine Coast Daily
THE 180,000 tyres that have been illegally dumped in the Ipswich region could lead to “a catastrophic fire event”.
That is the warning from Dave West, the national director of the Boomerang Alliance, who said there were “80,000 tyres at least at Haigslea and 100,000 at Kholo” that had been dumped by a rogue tyre scrap business operating out of Loganholme.
Boomerang Alliance, the peak body for the environment movement on waste and recycling, has been monitoring the activities of the business at sites in Lake Manchester Rd, Kholo and at Haigslea Cemetery Rd, Haigslea for the past six months.
“A tyre recycling facility holding 100,000 tyres probably needs $2 million worth of site works to render it safe,” he said.
“Tyres need specific infrastructure to deal with them because…once they are on fire they are almost impossible to put out. In fact, there is a pile in Wales that burnt for 17 years. That is the extreme, but if the pile (in Haigslea) catches fire it will burn for weeks.
“With bushfire season coming, it is a real concern.”
Mr West said the site at Kholo was “an even bigger fire threat than Haigslea”.
“If it was to go up it would be a catastrophic fire event. You would be talking about people having to move out of their homes,” he said.
