A MEAT meal hopper was dumped after a fire started from a mechanical failure in the hammer mill process at Swan Hill Abattoirs on Tuesday afternoon.

It took about 20 CFA crew more than two and a half hours to extinguish the fire, which caused heat in the shed containing the hopper to exceed 150 degrees.

Swan Hill Fire Brigade Captain Harold Jochs said the day’s 40-degree heat exacerbated the r...