Fire crews return to Katsdorf landfill to tackle hot spots

Four fire brigades returned to a landfill in Katsdorf, in Perg district, on Sunday after hot spots reignited three days after a fire there, ORF Upper Austria reported.

A guard at the landfill spotted several hot spots, prompting the response. Crews used a thermal imaging camera to check the waste and spread it with excavators and wheel loaders so they could extinguish the remaining embers. They used water and a small amount of firefighting foam.

The blaze on Thursday brought 16 fire brigades and about 200 firefighters to the landfill in Ruhstetten. The smoke plume was visible for kilometres, but crews prevented the flames from reaching an office building.

Batteries may have caused the fire. The incident commander urged people not to put batteries in household waste, but to take them to a recycling centre.