Twenty thousand tonnes of timber, the size of a football pitch is 50% alight
London Fire Brigade
Crews from the London Fire Brigade were called out last night to the facility in Choats Road, Dagenham, which is operated by Hertfordshire-based company Wood Bio Mass Services Ltd.
The firefighters spent most of the night and today dampening the flames and bringing the fire under control. A slip road between Choats Road and the A13 had to be closed, causing traffic disruption on the A13.
The fire brigade confirmed today that eight fire engines attended the blaze in the timber yard after receiving the alert at 22.40pm last night. In a statement the London Fire Brigade confirmed: “Twenty thousand tonnes of timber, the size of a football pitch is 50% alight and firefighters are stopping it from spreading to surrounding buildings.”
London's Metropolitan Police Service said the fire appeared to have started in a pile of pallets but a spokesman said the force was not involved in any investigation because “at this stage, it is not believed to be suspicious.”
Fire officers will carry out their own probe into the cause of the blaze but the extent of this investigation is not yet clear
Wood Bio Mass Services, a biomass fines fuel supplier exporting material across Europe, has its headquarters in Stansted Abbots, Hertfordshire. It processes waste wood at the site in Choats Road and the facility, believed to have cost £2.5 million, opened in April.
No-one from the company was available for comment.
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