Fire crews spent Monday night battling a Brooklyn scrap metal yard fire, which brigade crews believe had been burning for some time before it was noticed.
Fire trucks arrived at Sims Metal in McDonald Road about 4.40pm to find a mound of scrap metal, measuring 70 metres by 30 metres, already well alight.
MFB commander Phil Patterson said a major concern was the environmental effect of the toxic smoke.
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“We were fortunate the wind was coming from a generally southerly direction, so blowing it north of the site, mainly towards factories, which are unoccupied overnight, and wasteland,” he said.
“The nearest houses were about 1.5 kilometres away so the smoke was dissipating pretty well before it got to that area.
“A big percentage of the plume that was actually coming off the thing would have been steam, as much as smoke.
“The fire is very deep-seated within the pile – it’s like a fire in coal – and rather than free-burning it’s sort of glowing.
“What we had to do was use big excavators and grabbing machines to break up the actual pile … and that enabled us to get in where the fire was.”
About 90 firefighters and 26 trucks began to make inroads about 8pm, and were called off about 9am on Tuesday.
Community warnings were issued for Brooklyn, Tottenham, Laverton North, Sunshine West, West Footscray, Braybrook, Sunshine, Altona North and Maidstone.
Residents experiencing respiratory problems after inhaling smoke have been advised to seek medical advice.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
