Fire at Staffordshire mixed plastic waste plant

Fire officers are investigating a fire at a plastics recycling facility in Tamworth, Staffordshire, which caused widespread delays throughout the rail network in the Midlands yesterday evening.

The fire at Boomerang Plastics, which recycles food-contaminated plastic waste including PP pots, tubs and trays for clients which have included Mller Dairy according to media reports, broke out after 4pm yesterday (November 21) and involved between 30 and 40 tonnes of material.

Fire crews from the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the site in the Lichfield Industrial Estate area of Tamworth at 4:22 pm, with six engines attending the scene in total. Crews successfully managed to extinguish the blaze, although one engine has remained on the site this morning to ensure that it does not flare up again.

Dan Jordan, business development and commercial manager at Boomerang told letsrecycle.com that the cause of the fire is as yet unknown, and added that the company is working to ensure that the site can be fully operational as quickly as possible.

The fire, he noted, was in the storage yard for the hot wash facility.

Mr Jordan said: We cant say for certain what the cause of the fire was, material was wet and is close to a public access way so the police and fire service are currently investigating what may have started the fire.

Other areas of our site are still running and our team have worked fantastically hard to make sure that the damage to the site has been limited to a small area. I would also like to thank the fire crews for their efforts in tackling this fire.

Disruptions

The fire caused major disruptions on the West Coast Rail Line between London Euston and Crewe until late into the evening due to the sites close proximity to the track, with line operator London Midland having to cancel a number of services as a result.

Delays even affected the recording of the BBCs Question Time in Salford, with two guests having to pull out of the show at the last minute after being caught up in the disruptions.

Some nearby homes also had to be evacuated due to the fumes from the burning plastic. However, it has been confirmed that damage was contained to heat damage of one wall of the companys building.

Incident commander Simon Craythorn of Staffordshire Fire Service, said: The incident had the potential to be very serious and reinforces the importance of companies installing water sprinkler systems to protect their premises.

Our main priority on arrival was to prevent the fire spreading to neighbouring business premises and the adjacent London Midland railway line. We attacked the flames from two sides and fire crews did such a fantastic job in containing the fire, damage has been minimal.

It was a very difficult fire to deal with due to the very high temperatures that burning plastics reach as well as the thick smoke given off and growing darkness. We also had restricted access to the site and all the risks involved in dealing with fire in close proximity to a railway and power lines.

Boomerang

Boomerang Plastics, which is sister company to the recycling equipment manufacturer Summit Systems, recycles post and pre consumer PP trays and cutlery, horticultural plastic waste and shampoo and cosmetics bottles.

The plant operates sorting, washing, drying and granulating systems, with the resulting recycled plastic flake sold to manufacturers for the production of garden furniture.
This is the latest in a long line of high profile fires to hit the waste and recycling sector in recent months, including a blaze at Jayplas plastics recycling depot in Smethwick (see letsrecycle.com story).

• UPDATE 13:00 November 22: Staffordshire Police have launched an appeal for witnesses after it was confirmed that the fire was started deliberately.