Third London Recycling Centre Fire This Summer Highlights Battery Blaze Pattern

A major fire at a Neasden mixed-waste facility on 28 August 2026 — the third at a London recycling centre this summer — deployed 125 firefighters and halted the entire Metropolitan line. The cause remains unknown. Lithium battery fires at waste facilities, often from discarded vapes, exceed ten per week nationwide and cost an estimated £1 billion annually, according to the Environmental Services Association.