Wood and WEEE fires tackled over weekend

And, in Lincolnshire, a severe fire broke out at WEEE recycling firm Environcoms recycling plant in Grantham on Saturday (May 17). It is the second fire to hit the site within six months.

The woodchip blaze in Warwickshire is believed to have affected around 150 square metres of wood chip material at the A & A Recycling Services site. Operations have been suspended while the fire service dampen down the fire.

According to Billesley Community Fire Station, which had units at the scene, on Saturday (May 17) around 6,000 tonnes of wood was burning at the site

Two fire engines and 10 firefighters remain at the scene and are expected to be there for quite a while, according to a fire service spokesman, who added that firefighters could be at the site in Meriden for another 48 hours or more to dampen down the wood.

Due to its severity, the blaze was sectorised to enable fire services to tackle the flames in segments, with a high volume pumping unit remaining at the scene in order to relay water from a local reservoir.

The fire service spokesman said that investigations to determine the cause of the fire would take place once the site has been made safe.

At its height on Friday evening, around 16 fire engines and 80 firefighters from West Midlands Fire Service were tackling the blaze. This was scaled back over the course of the weekend, with 20 firefighters handling the situation by Sunday (May 18).

Wood Recycling Association (WRA) member A & A Recycling Services Ltd processes waste wood and wooden pallets, producing animal bedding and biomass fuel for E.ONs Lockerbie biomass plant.

The firms administrative office is based at Coleshill Road in Bentley, around 14 miles away from its Meriden woodchip site.

Environcom fire

Elsewhere, WEEE recycling firm Environcom has suffered a severe fire at its recycling plant in Grantham, Lincolnshire the second such incident at the site in less than six months.

Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service was called to the site on Great North Road at around 8.15pm on Saturday (May 17), where 10 pumping appliances and an aerial ladder platform were used to tackle the blaze.

All crews had left the scene by 5pm yesterday after successfully extinguishing the blaze, and operations at the site handed back to on-site management.

The fire service stated that the facility had sustained severe damage to its recycling machinery and materials as well as smoke damage.

However, Environcom said that operations would continue as usual today after limited damage to the fabric of the building – rather than to the machinery itself.

Sean Feeney, chief executive officer of Environcom, said: There was a fire at the Grantham Environcom site on Saturday night, which was contained quickly thanks to the Lincolnshire Fire Brigade. This fire was in a separate part of the building to the previous one.

Having assessed the situation over the weekend, I can confirm there are no casualties and limited damage which is restricted to the fabric of the building. Further to a meeting with the Fire Brigade, Environcom is operating business as usual today.

He added: Since I took over the running of Environcom in 2004, I have made Health and Safety my number one priority and we have rigorous systems in place to minimise fire risk. We have regular meetings with the Fire Brigade to review our systems and implement their recommendations. I have a whole team looking at this so we can avoid any future incidents.

The 10 million Grantham-based Environcom plant has the capacity to treat around 100,000 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) a year.

The incident follows a fire which began in fridge recycling machinery at the site in February this year. At the time, the firm was forced to divert some deliveries to its Dudley plant (see letsrecycle.com story).