The company behind one of the state’s largest stockpiles of toxic waste and a factory where a catastrophic industrial blaze burnt for days has collapsed, leaving taxpayers to potentially foot a multimillion-dollar clean-up bill.

Bradbury Industrial Services has been placed into external administration, months after 175 firefighters battled a toxic inferno at its Campbellfield factory in Melbourne’s north and authorities linked it to a chemical waste dumping operation at four other sites.

Firefighters at the scene of the factory fire in Campbellfield. Credit:Paul Jeffers

International accounting firm PKF has been appointed to step in as administrator to recoup the funds Bradbury Industrial Services owes creditors.

“Bradbury Industrial has made this difficult but prudent decision due to solvency concerns,” PKF said in a statement.