Tip fire blankets Bulla and Melbourne’s northwest in smoke
A fire at a notorious Bulla tip has blanketed Melbourne’s northwest in toxic smoke. The landfill’s infamous past and links to gangland figures Shane Charter and Fedele D’Amico have been revealed, with the site once ordered shut by the EPA.
Victoria
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A massive fire broke out at an infamous tip in Melbourne’s northwest, which was once at the centre of a bitter legal stoush.
Firefighters started battling the enormous blaze at the Bulla Tip & Quarry, on the corner of Sunbury and Bulla roads, just before 7am.
CFA Commander Ryan Baxter said it took firefighters three hours to contain the blaze.
Fire investigators are yet to determine the cause of the fire.
However Cmd Baxter said it did not appear to be “sinister” and Victoria Police confirmed they are “not involved in this incident at this point”.
Cmd Baxter said the fire had caught onto a large pile of household waste and residential building material.
“The fire itself was above the surface in a pile about 20 metres high and it’s only the first five metres where the fire has taken hold so it’s not sub-surface at all,” Cmd Baxter said.
The burning material was relocated to an open space where firefighters are working to douse any potential hot spots.
Witnesses said the area was nearly blacked out with the smoke.
An advice message has been issued to Bulla, Diggers Rest, Greenvale, Keilor North, Melbourne Airport, Oaklands Junction, Sunbury and Wildwood, with residents within a 5km radius told to keep their windows shut.
Dozens of CFA firefighters attended the scene.
A bulldozer was used to smother the blaze from the fire perimeter.
The Environmental Protection Authority has requested the incident controller to provide air monitoring in the area.
The tip was ordered shut by the Environment Protection Authority in 2018 because of fires on the site, exposed asbestos and waste strewn outside its boundaries.
Australian Recycling Corporation took control of the tip in March this year.
Its control has previously been at the centre of a bitter legal and physical stoush between Melbourne gangland figures Shane Charter and Fedele D’Amico.
In 2017, drug trafficker and Essendon supplements saga figure Charter bought the site for $5 million.
The purchase sparked hostility and court action with prominent underworld identity D’Amico, who also wanted to run it.
Allegations later emerged that Charter and D’Amico fought over the site at a Hungry Jacks restaurant.
Charter, a mate of top Mongol bikie Toby Mitchell, is a body builder and biochemist.
He supplied the supplements used by Essendon players which ultimately plunged the club into crisis.
D’Amico, known as Fred Bear, was investigated over the notorious Tomato Tins ecstasy importation and was the target of a murder plot cooked up by fellow gangsters in that period.
He was well known on race tracks before being banned by authorities.
The Herald Sun has contacted the Bulla Tip & Quarry for comment.
Its website states the tip is under new management and is working with the EPA to restore the facility.
However, the waste stockpiles are yet to be relocated to the new disposal site.
“We have excavated and relocated the waste material that was inappropriately disposed of to temporary stockpiles at our facility as part of the approved clean up works at the site,” it read.
“These temporary stockpiles are covered and are visible from Sunbury Road. We are now continuing with the construction and engineering of our new landfill cell which will comply to EPA Victoria’s design and construction requirements.
“Upon completion of the new cell, we will commence relocating the stockpiles of waste within the approved cell.”
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