Australia: Hundreds evacuated after toxic blaze at Melbourne recycling plant

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org (http://www.wsws.org)

Coolaroo and Dallas residents in Melbourne’s northern suburbs spoke to World Socialist Web Site reporters, denouncing government and environmental protection authorities over their response to the SKM Recycling plant fire last Thursday.

More... (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/17/cool-j17.html)

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org (http://www.wsws.org)

The SKM fire is a product of the systematic gutting of environmental health and safety regulations, as well as town planning and construction guidelines.

More... (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/17/toxi-j17.html)

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org (http://www.wsws.org)

Firefighting services have been called to the plant nine times in the last five years—four times this year, three times in 2015 and once in both 2012 and 2013.

More... (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/07/22/recy-j22.html)

[Ele'ill]

Lots of years ago I lived in a quasi rural area where there was a fuel processing plant nearby. The area marked the beginning of such industrial sprawl blended within the living ghetto. Early one morning my partner and I woke up to the sound of a creepy siren and the ground for a considerable distance around the plant was blanketed in a white mist that had a plastic like smell and didn't move like smoke does. We ran out to the car and drove to the end of the mist down the road and decided after a minute to park on the street nearby, ready to go, but intending to go back and wake as many people as we could. After we had at least a few people up who were coherent and could carry on what we were doing which they did right away which was awesome because one of the people who was up knew a lot of the other neighbors which made things less awkward, we went over to the plant to see what was going on. There was a group of employees in regular clothes at the street, there were hazmat teams, cops, firefighters, and they all told us to go away, except for a small group who told us that they weren't allowed to talk to the public about what the possibilities were. Shortly after that interaction everyone was pushed back to the corner of the property to the street, including cops and some fire people. That was the extent of it as the fire was put out and the mist stayed until about when the sun came up. The news headlines just mentioned a fire at a building that was put out in the early morning hours.