Australia: Kilburn plastic recycling factory goes up in smoke, causing $1 million damage

---

Residents living near a large plastics recycling factory in Adelaide's inner north, where a fire broke out last night, say they are worried about the health impacts of fumes being emitted from the facility. The fire broke out at the Kilburn factory and caused toxic smoke to drift across the area which is also home to residential streets, including many with new housing developments. The Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) estimated the damage bill to be more than $1 million. It took 17 firefighters over an hour to contain the blaze, and investigators were yet to determine the cause of the fire.

MFS assistant chief fire officer Peter Button said fire crews responded to a blaze at the same $100 million facility a decade ago, destroying recycled plastics outside the premises. This time, we narrowly avoided a significant fire by the quick actions [of firefighters] and controlling it down to just the machinery involved. A machine called a hopper caught fire first before spreading to a small part of the structure.

Local resident Mehbuba Mehzabin said she came outside about 7:00pm on Thursday and witnessed lots of smoke. The sky was completely black. Our house brought in 2016 but were thinking of moving because of the noise and chemical smells emitted from the factory. It is a residential area and the factory shouldn't be here. This is our permanent home so it is very upsetting for us and we are really worried about this.

Neighbours have made complaints