"Move along, there's nothing to see here" (not)

We were returning from a stroll in North Canberra, and as we passed the Australian War Memorial noticed a very dark plume of smoke rising into the sky.  There were no National Parks in that direction so it was unlikely to be the ACT Government caring for the environment.

The colour of the smoke made it look like a fire with some oil in it.  As it was directly in line with the airport (but at the opposite end to where the fire crews do their training) this was a worry.  However as we got on to Pialligo Avenue it was clearly beyond the airport and either:

• the concrete recyclers (bad); or
• the explosives magazine near the quarry (very bad).

It turned out to be the first of these.

The firies - apparently 15 units - were on the job.

My guess is the guys on the right are Mr Plod.  The body language of the bloke on the far right is almost pure channel of Dixon of Dock Green.

When we left - there were quite a few cars parked on the bike lane by then, leading me to think of the title for the post - water was being applied, so I hope it was mainly the old pallets visible above, rather than a few kilolitres of sump oil.

The Canberra Times had fair coverage of the event.  Possibly some of the more serious photographers  parked beside the road were getting images for them.  The ABC has subsequently confirmed my view that a similar fire had happened quite recently.