Health & safety bulletin
Waste skips & associated fire hazards
31st May 2005
An incident occurred at a filling station in 2005 involving schoolchildren setting alight dumped refuse sacks that had been placed into a waste skip. The fire brigade was called and the small fire was quickly extinguished.
Xmo Strata has carried out an investigation into the incident and set the following recommendations for any future incidents of this kind:
- Wherever possible enclosed skips with lockable doors are to be used on all sites; all installers are to purchase chains and locks to ensure compliance
- Whenever an open type skip is delivered to a site, no paper, cling film, foam etc is to be stored in the skip. This material is to be temporarily stored in the lockable container, it is only to be placed in the waste skip when the delivery wagon arrives to remove it from the site
- Surveyors carrying out the validations will make notes of the following items to assist with the waste skip selection:- security of site, quantity of waste, type of waste, flammability etc & specific location of skip to be placed on forecourt. – Check the validation notes and DO NOT ACCEPT A SKIP ON SITE UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED WHAT IS REQUIRED.
- Contents of skips should be checked for combustible materials at the start and end of each working day
- If refuse or other combustible material is found in the waste skip, this must be reported immediately to the Site Manager and Xmo Strata office. They will then arrange its speedy collection and exchange