Reports of the incident started to come into Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service at 2pm on Sunday (May 2), with “high volumes of calls” noting a “smoke plume” above the Warren Park site, to the southwest of the city of Leicester.
At its height, the blaze was tackled by at least 50 firefighters from crews in Southern and Western Leicester, Wigston and Nottinghamshire. The fire affected a single building on the site and the smoke from the blaze led to residents being recommended to keep their windows closed.
A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Fire & Rescue told letsrecycle.com that the cause of the blaze was not yet known, she said: “Any cause is under investigation, so we will not be commenting on that.”
She added that there was currently no crew presence at the site but that they would be returning later today to re-evaluate the site.
Eurokey – which predominantly handles recovered paper and plastics before exporting them for reprocessing abroad – confirmed that no staff or personnel had been on site at the time of the incident and, as result, the fire had resulted in no injuries or casualties.
Insurance
Speaking to letsrecycle.com this morning, Joe Bisland, commercial director at Eurokey, said: “The fire and the police forensic team have just completed their investigation and our insurance investigator is coming here at lunch time today.”
Mr Bisland explained that there was aluminium, steel, plastics and some cardboard on site at the time of the fire and the presence of the plastics material had been one of the causes of the smoke plume being so black.
Mr Bisland urged Eurokey customers to be patient while the Enderby site was closed but said that the firm expected it to “business as usual” from tomorrow (May 5) with the use of makeshift sites.
Eurokey is set to continue to accept material for sorting, grading and baling by sending it to its Lount facility – 20 miles from the Enderby site – and it has also rented facilities in Leicester where it will continue operating.
Furthermore, Eurokey explained that it is in the “advanced stages” of developing a larger processing and sorting facility in Hinckley, which it will also be using in the meantime to accept material.
Eurokey Recycling is not affiliated with the company Eurokey Plastics Recycling, which was formed in September 2009. Eurokey Recycling accepts plastic material from local authorities such as East Devon district council and Hinckley & Bosworth borough council.
Register for free to comment