Fire crews spend two days at Sims fire

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service says it was alerted to a fire on Thursday, 6 May at 17:20 and arrived to find a “large pile of scrap” on fire.

Crews remained on the scene at the plant on Redfield Road overnight and at the fire’s peak, around 100 firefighters from three departments were on the scene.

Fire crews left the scene at 16:15 on 8 May, nearly 48 hours after the incident was reported.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue service confirmed to letsrecycle today (10 May) that there were no injuries and an investigation into the cause of the fire found it was accidental.

A spokesperson from Sims said: “At approximately 5.30pm on the 6 May, we experienced a fire at our Nottingham facility that was contained within our infeed material that was waiting to be size reduced and separated by the shredder. The Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service was called, and the fire was extinguished at approximately 12pm on the 7^th May. No injuries were sustained as a result of this incident, and we are in the process of investigating the cause of the fire. We apologise to our local community and neighbours for any disruption caused”. 

Facility

The facility predominately shreds WEEE but also accepts ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal, as well as vehicles from individuals and businesses. Pictures from the scene from the fire service appears to show the fire broke out in a pile of electrical appliances.

Residents were warned to stay clear of the area and to keep all windows and doors shut due to large amounts of black smoke.

Monitoring

The Environment Agency also said it was on the scene to monitor any possible environmental impacts from the waste fire.

NFRS area manager Damien West said: “I want to thank everyone at the scene, our Joint Control Room who handled the large volume of calls extremely well as well as maintaining cover across the county, and our partners for helping us at the incident.

“My thanks also to the crews who were deployed across the county to maintain fire cover during a very busy period for us.  The incident saw us work closely with our multi-agency partners including Nottinghamshire Police, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Network Rail, Canal & River Trust and Public Health England.”