The plume of thick, black smoke that streaked across Melbourne’s skyline after starting in the gentrified suburb of West Footscray could be seen from Victoria’s biggest regional city almost an hour away.
About 100 firefighters worked throughout the night to bring the massive industrial fire under control.
However, the fire is still burning and sending acrid smoke across Melbourne’s western suburbs, and a watch and act notice remains in place for 19 suburbs.
What’s going on?
Schools and child care centres in the area have reopened today, after closing on Thursday due to health and safety concerns.
Authorities have advised nearby residents and workers to limit their time outdoors.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has warned people to avoid Stony Creek, and waters in Hobsons Bay around Spotswood and Williamstown, after toxic water from the site flowed into waterways.
The fire is the biggest Melbourne has seen in years and is being compared to the 1992 Coode Islan
d fire, when a chemical storage tank in a nearby suburb exploded and sent out clouds of toxic smoke.
The cause of Thursday’s inferno is still unclear, and firefighters at the moment are more concerned about dousing the blaze than figuring out what started it.
The fire will take days to be completely smothered, according to the authorities, and so smoke will steadily billow into the sky and waft towards nearby homes.
“Unfortunately, it is still a significant fire that we are having trouble getting access to,” Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) incident controller Trent Curtin said.
“We’ll be bringing in lots of machinery today … like excavators and bulldozers, get some heavy machinery to pull apart parts of the building.
“There’s lots of different materials in the middle there that we are having trouble getting access to.
“We had fire investigators here yesterday, Victoria Police have been on scene, and as soon as we can get proper access we’ll see if we make a determination as to what the cause of the fire was.”
He said around 60 firefighters and 25 trucks remained at the scene.
What’s in the smoke?
The storage factory that caught fire contained a chemical called acetone, which is a colourless, flammable liquid used as a nail polish remover and a solvent in paint.
The factory also contained acetylene, which is a gas used for welding and can be highly explosive.
The composition of both chemicals mean they are good at producing smoke, which explains the giant plume — and it is not the usual smoke that would emanate from a typical house fire.
“I think the way that this appears to be different is that it’s more concentrated than you might otherwise expect,” said Gabriel Da Silva, an expert in atmospheric chemistry and air quality from the University of Melbourne.
“You have these very good fuel sources that are very good at making soot particles.”
