‘Hefty repair bill’: Regional Recycle in Fyansford hit by early morning blaze

A local business is lamenting the loss of a vital piece of equipment following an overnight that saw 11 Country Fire Authority units attend.

Regional Recycle has suffered a big blow to its operations after a crushing plant was damaged in a fire overnight. Picture: Regional Recycle (File picture).

An overnight fire at a family business in Fyansford took almost an hour to put out after a crushing plant was engulfed by flames.

Firefighters from the Country Fire Authority were called to Regional Recycle on Hamilton Hwy at about 2.30am on Tuesday.

A CFA spokeswoman said 11 units arrived to find a large conveyor belt attached to the plant fully alight.

Regional Recycle operations manager Hugh Lewis said there was significant damage and the machinery was now inoperable.

“It’s going to be a fairly hefty repair bill … these sort of costs are what we don’t need,” he said.

The crushing plant provides an essential service to the business by processing building materials such as concrete and brick for recycling.

Mr Lewis said the loss would be substantial.

“It’s a vital piece of equipment for our day-to-day operations,” he said.

“It could only be (out of action) another week or two, but it’s definitely something that we don’t want.”

The blaze was deemed safe just after 4am.

Police also attended, however the incident was not deemed suspicious.

“We still don’t know how it’s happened, we are waiting for it to be investigated,” Mr Lewis said.

Meanwhile, the Environment Protection Authority on Monday announced it had fined a Moolap-based recycling company almost $10,000 after it breached permit conditions.

The regulator said GT Plastic Recyclers failed to notify when its stockpiles of plastic waste exceeded size limits.

Originally published as ‘Hefty repair bill’: Regional Recycle in Fyansford hit by early morning blaze