A small fire broke out at a WasteServ plant on Sunday, “metres away” from a pile of used mattresses that is considered a fire hazard.

Residents who spoke to Times of Malta said they saw smoke coming out from the Sant’ Antnin plant in Marsascala around noon.

The fire originated in an engine of an industrial vehicle that was in the vicinity of the mattress pile. It was extinguished within minutes before Civil Protection Department officers arrived on site.

But the incident happened days after sources warned that the growing pile of mattresses was fast becoming a fire hazard in the same site that was engulfed in raging fires in 2017.

Times of Malta reported last week that a ‘mountain’ of mattresses had piled up at WasteServ’s Marsacala plant, despite a €20 million facility that was opened two months ago to recycle them.

No mattresses or any other material was involved in the fire

Sources said ‘hundreds’ of used mattresses had been dumped at the plant this summer after equipment at a recycling plant in Ħal Far developed faults shortly after it opened.

WasteServ had suggested the plant has not fully halted operations and is producing and exporting recycled materials as it was intended to. But it did acknowledge many mattresses were still left at the Marsacala plant and had confirmed it was taking regular thermal readings of the highly flammable mattresses throughout the day and that it has a standby firefighting system in place in case of emergency.

In a statement, WasteServ said the Marsascala site has a “fully-fledged firefighting system” on standby.

“We confirm that on Sunday an engine of an industrial vehicle developed a fire which was extinguished within minutes in line with our firefighting protocols,” it said.

It added that “no mattresses or any other material was involved in the fire which was strictly localised to the engine compartment of the industrial vehicle”.