Some 100 firefighters battled a huge blaze at the Visy materials recycling facility (MRF) at Wingfield in Adelaide's north on 8 April, eventually bringing it under control, with the damage bill estimated to run to over a million dollars.
The Wingfield plant sustained an estimated $1 million worth of damage when fire broke out in piles of paper and plastic recyclable waste that had been stored post collection from 11 Adelaide councils.
In the early hours of 8 April fire services responded to a smoke alarm and triple-0 calls. At the fire's peak both the SA Metropolitan and the Country Fire Services were fighting the blaze, and it took firefighters several hours to contain it.
The roof of the factory collapsed, with nearby residents reporting explosions and large flames in the night sky, with smoke billowing over large parts of the north of the city.
The Wingfield plant typically processed over 250 tonnes of packaging waste a day, and over 100,000 tonnes per year.
The plant is now out of action for the foreseeable future, and Visy is making contingency plans for the waste, diverting it to another Visy-owned MRF in Sydney, as well as to a mothballed Visy plant at North Plympton, in Adelaide's south-western suburbs.
