A major fire in a machine processing medical waste at Dandenong South has cost the company running it nearly $55,000 for breaching a licence condition from EPA Victoria.

EPA charged Cleanaway Daniels Services Pty Ltd for failing to prevent medical waste being processed in the early afternoon of 8 June 2022 from burning.

Eight fire crews from Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) and CFA had the fire contained in less than an hour, but it would be seven hours before it was finally extinguished.

The company told EPA that its Cahill Street facility processes 80 to 90 percent of the medical waste in Melbourne. The machine, a hammermill, that shreds waste before it is chemically treated, compacted, and sent to landfill, has since been replaced with new technology that uses steam to disinfect the medical waste.

There was no automatic fire detection system in the factory, in spite of a recommendation made after a fire that happened three months earlier. Had it been there, the system could have set off sprinklers to suppress the fire.

The company pleaded guilty in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court and Magistrate Julian Ayres sentenced it to pay a $40,000 fine plus $14,906 to cover EPA’s legal costs, but did not record a conviction. The Magistrate also ordered the company to publicise the case in the press.

EPA Regional Manager Viranga Abeywickrema says the charge in court was for breaching one of the strict conditions in the company’s EPA licence to operate the medical waste facility.

“The licence condition being breached was quite simple, it said the company must make sure the waste does not burn,” Mr Abeywickrema said.

“There was a condition that the company did follow: it reported the fire to EPA promptly.”

In sentencing the company, the Magistrate noted that it had a clean record at the site, built up over several decades, and that the new technology used to replace the hammermill made the likelihood of another fire almost non-existent.