By Casey Neill
Police are investigating a tyre fire that threatened Iveco’s Dandenong South factory on Saturday 3 December.
Greater Dandenong CIU Detective Senior Constable Chris Zurek said an arson chemist had examined the Princes Highway site.
He said police were treating the fire as suspicious but had not yet identified the cause.
Security staff reported the fire to emergency services about 4.45pm and 12 CFA appliances attended, with Hallam Fire Brigade the first on scene.
The CFA asked the community to stay indoors and avoid the area if possible.
The fire was brought under control about 7.10pm.
Iveco’s Ron Grasso arrived at the scene about half an hour after the fire was spotted.
“By that stage the CFA had it pretty much under control,” he said.
“Some of the images were worse than what the outcome was in the end – luckily.
“We were very fortunate they were able to get it under control so quickly.
“The response was really strong and very quick.”
Mr Grasso said the fire was in truck tyres close to the main plant and other equipment, including several tractors.
“Some of the tractors also sustained some heat damage,” he said.
He said Iveco hadn’t determined the damage bill but said it would be a substantial cost.
“Best guess, about 100 tyres went up in smoke,” he said.
“The situation could have been much worse.”
There were no employees on site at the time.
“What we’re doing now is going through the process of identifying the source of the fire,” he said.
“We’re working with police on that.
“Our concern now is making sure the site is safe.
“It will have a slight impact on production, as we focus on this as a priority.
“We’re pretty confident we’ll be able to mitigate most of that.”
Mr Grasso said Iveco was in contact with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and Worksafe regarding the clean-up and preventing future incidents.
“You never know what could happen,” he said.
“There’s always the potential for something to happen.”
