West Bromwich textile recycler hit by severe fire

Fire crews were called to the firms site at Greets Green Road in West Bromwich at 01:52, where three single storey industrial units had caught alight. At the peak of the fire ten fire engines and 60 firefifighters attended the scene. No one was injured. The fire has since been brought under control with one jet and crew still on site.

The cause of the fire is currently unknown and subject to a joint investigation by the fire services and the police.

BCR Global Textiles collects reusable textiles and shoes which are transported to the West Bromwich site for sorting before they are exported for reuse. The firm said the building where its stock was stored after sorting was completely destroyed in the fire.

Shock

Speaking to letsrecycle.com today (January 7) Maxine Sault, managing director of BCR Global Textiles, said the company had lost a lot of stock but that its sorting operation and collections were operating today as usual.

She said: The building where our stock was has completely gone. We have lost a lot of stock. We dont know how much as yet. The building where we do the sorting is fine so it is business as usual and we have put in place a contingency plan.

It is a bit of a shock, but we are insured and it is business as usual.

The firm has located another building where the sorted material can be stored and collections are continuing as normal.

Ms Sault praised the fire brigades efforts which she said saved the office building on site.

She said: The fire brigade was here all night and are still here now. They were amazing. They are dampening down the fire. We have been contacting our customers and clients who we collect from to keep them informed.

Incident

The West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) said the blaze had been brought under control by 07:20 yesterday. The scene was attended by crews from the Black Country area including: West Bromwich; Tipton; Oldbury; Dudley; and, Wednesbury.

A spokesman for the WMFS said: The time of the initial call was at 01:52 on the sixth of January. At the peak of the incident we had ten fire engines on the scene and it was a severe fire involving three single storey industrial units of a total area of approximately 40 metres by 60 metres. Approximately 80% of the buildings were involved in the fire and subject to partial collapse of a roof.

Giving an update on the current situation, he said: We are still dampening down a number of hot spots at the site and we have got one main jet deployed to do that with one fire crew still at the scene. A joint police and fire investigation is under way into the cause of the fire.