FIREFIGHTERS battled a large shed fire at the Eaglehawk tip for four hours on Sunday night.
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The blaze destroyed three transfer sheds packed with 60 tonnes of domestic waste.
City of Greater Bendigo waste services manager Simon Clay said the incident would cause operational issues at the tip for several weeks but would not delay customers.
“There are a couple of potential causes ranging from a battery in something like a laptop computer short circuiting all the way through to someone entering to deliberately set fire to materials,” he said.
“There are a couple of security cameras on a shed that are owned by a contractor.
“We’ll be looking to access that footage and see if there’s anything on there that will give us an indication of how the fire started.
“It will cause some inconvenience for us at the landfill regarding how we operate for the next few weeks, but it shouldn’t cause any delays or reduction in service to the public.”
The sheds, which are between 10 and 15 years old, are believed to be worth several hundred thousand dollars.
An insurance company will assess the damage, but Mr Clay said the structures would most likely be demolished.
“We’ve got to come up with some way to work around it because that shed was a critical part of our operations,” he said.
“We’ll have to look at getting the shed inspected and demolished as quickly as we can and use something temporary to ship waste out for a period of time.
“You would expect the recommendation from insurance is that the sheds are not safe and are irreparable.”
Firefighters were called to the scene at about 9pm and had to cut holes into the shed to access the fire.
The sheds were used to store waste before being transported to other sites.
Detective Senior Constable Michael Thompson said police had not been told the fire was suspicious.