The fire that caused the collapse of a fibreglass chute at BlueScope's sinter plant is thought to have started when hot gas entered the stack.
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John Nowlan, general manager of manufacturing, said investigations were ongoing, but an "issue" in two of the five charcoal cylinders at the Waste Gas Cleaning Plant forced the shutdown.
In the process of shutting down, Mr Nowlan said, hot gas entered the stack.
"Each cylinder has about 500 tons of char in it. The issue started in two of the five cylinders, but we have to get char out to see," Mr Nowlan said.
"In the process of shutting it down, hot gas ignited the stack."
Mr Nowlan apologised to the community for inconvenience caused by the fire, including huge plumes of black smoke and blackened chunks of fibreglass landing on nearby properties.
He said 23 people had called a BlueScope hotline by Friday morning, most wanting BlueScope to remove fibreglass from their property.
"I want to apologise to the community for the impact of smoke and debris," Mr Nowlan said.
"We are not in any way happy about this."
On Friday, crews were already removing the metal frame that surrounded the fibreglass stack. Mr Nowlan said the stack would be rebuilt using steel.
"Steel allows faster construction. Rebuilding using fibreglass is a six to nine-month timeframe," Mr Nowlan said.
"We looked at a lot of options, but the one we put in will be the final solution."
He said the rebuild would cost up to $12 million, and BlueScope aimed to have the new stack operational within 10 weeks.
"There are two issues," Mr Nowlan said.
"First, we have to rebuild the stack, but we also have to find out what caused the fire so it doesn't happen again."
Fibreglass report due
The EPA will next week release analysis of the fibreglass chunks that rained down on Cringila and Port Kembla backyards after Monday night’s fire.
EPA director (metropolitan) Giselle Howard said the agency had received preliminary data on the material and they were ‘‘not concerned’’, but a full report would be available next week.
Daniel Aquilina had six hand-sized pieces of fibreglass land in the backyard of his family’s Warrawong home.
His father called the BlueScope hotline on Wednesday afternoon, and a team arrived on Thursday afternoon to collect the material.
‘‘They didn’t say much, they just asked for the fibreglass,’’ Mr Aquilina said.
Anyone who has material should call 1800 646 488.
- JOSHUA BUTLER
