The blaze at Baylis Recycling facility outside Slough saw a 24-hour exclusion zone set up because of the risk of explosions from gas cylinders at the site. The 200m exclusion zone caused transport chaos by cutting off London Paddington station from the rail network.
” By Wednesday we are hoping to have somewhere for our suppliers to tip, we have other areas where we can take material. “
– Chris Baylis, Baylis Recycling
The Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service first received a call about the incident at the Deseronto Trading Estate at 10.30am on Sunday (September 17).
It is thought that the fire could have been started by “youths setting a bin on fire”, although the Fire Brigade has said it is too early to make an official comment as to the cause. An investigation is now underway.
Damage
Speaking to letsrecycle.com today, managing director of the recycling company, Chris Baylis, said the fire had caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage. Mr Baylis' company had invested 3 million in the plant in 2004.
Mr Baylis said the fire had destroyed stock as well as machinery including a shredder, baler, dustcart and granulator.
“An approximate figure for replacement is at least 600,000, probably more,” said Mr Baylis.
A spokeswoman for the Fire Brigade said six pumps and several specialist vehicles had been sent to the site to tackle the blaze, which saw clouds of black smoke billowing over the otherwise clear Berkshire sky and explosions heard by witnesses.
The fire was extinguished by Sunday night, but the exclusion zone is expected to remain in place for part of today to allow gas cylinders to cool.
“The stop time was at 20.52 last night, but there will be a reinspection this morning with a further investigation into the reason for the fire starting to follow,” the Fire Brigade spokeswoman said.
Material
Plans are already in place to divert waste HDPE plastic material collected from local authority and commercial customers, while hopes are that some limited processing capacity will be back up and running within two weeks.
| Related links: |
Mr Baylis explained: “By Wednesday we are hoping to have somewhere for our suppliers to tip, we have other areas where we can take material. We will use other companies to bale the plastic ready for us to take on board when we are able to.
“We will hopefully be back up and running in a couple of weeks, but the flaking side will probably be a couple of months,” he added.
Subscribe for free