01 JUNE 2023 | UPDATE: Favona/Auckland Ferrous Yard
David Burrows, Chief Operating Officer APAC at Sims Metal
We can confirm that as of approximately 2:20 am local time, the fire at our Favona facility was successfully extinguished. Our team worked collaboratively with Fire Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) throughout the day and evening to significantly reduce the material infeed pile, separating and exposing the incendiary material to mitigate further ignition.
FENZ is winding down its response but will remain onsite until daylight hours to conduct a final assessment. Our team is beginning clean-up efforts onsite and James Fletcher Road has been re-opened to traffic.
We would like to thank FENZ for their quick and diligent response to this incident. Across our global operation, Sims Metal works collaboratively with local fire departments and fire detection firms to ensure our control measures in fire prevention and methods for response continually improve with new technologies. Over the past year, Sims Metal has partnered with fire detection firms to trial state-of-the-art, machine-learning early detection warning systems to control fire risk.
Sims Metal would like to thank the local community for their patience while we worked with FENZ to ensure that fire was extinguished in a safe and efficient manner. Once again, we sincerely apologize for the concern, disruption and inconvenience this incident has caused our community neighbors. Our after-action investigation will begin immediately, and we will also review our protocols to determine the appropriate actions needed to mitigate the possibility of a future recurrence.
Favona Site Fire, Auckland
31 May 2023
David Burrows, Sims Metal Chief Operating Officer APAC
At approximately 12.00 am on Wednesday, 31 May, we experienced a fire in a pile of post-consumer material that was waiting to be processed at our facility in Favona. Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) was contacted and responded quickly to our location. Our team are working alongside FENZ to reduce the size of the pile and expose the material, enabling FENZ to successfully extinguish the fire.
While FENZ and our local team are making progress in this regard, due to the size of the pile we expect that it will take some time to fully extinguish the fire. Our practice is to never speculate on the cause of a fire, but we will conduct a review of the incident and take appropriate action to mitigate the possibility of a recurrence, including further review and assessment of inbound material to identify potentially harmful components.
The health and welfare of our community, neighbors and employees is of paramount importance to us, and we are deeply sorry for the inconvenience that this incident has caused.
