The recycling plant was storing thousands of tonnes of waste paper, which went up in smoke in the early evening on 15 June.

According to the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, the 70 firefighters took more than five hours to get the blaze under control.

“The fire was very hard to reach and extinguish, due to stacks of thousands of tonnes of waste paper. The plant was full of smoke, making it impossible to see the fire let alone fight it.”

The department used its High-Angle Rescue team to remove skylights so smoke could escape before using front-end loaders and forklifts to pull apart bales of paper apart to extinguish the fire.

The fire department said: “The surrounding area was monitored for toxic smoke emissions but none were found.”

The Alphington site has been in the headlines for all the wrong reason in recent times.

In May this year, Amcor Packaging was issued with five Pollution Abatement Notices by the Victorian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after concerns from local residents about the smell at Alphington.

In 2005 and 2007, the EPA fined Amcor for water pollution at the Alphington site.

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