Major Telford fire effectively out – with focus switching to preventing a repeat
A major fire which has dominated the skyline above Telford for the past month is finally out – with emergency services now set to make sure it cannot happen again.
The blaze at the former Greenway Polymers Recycling site in Ketley had burned for 28 days, with more than 1,000 firefighters being used to tackle the incident over the past month.
Removal of the building which was housing the smouldering debris was completed over the weekend, allowing a combination of efforts from firefighters and the rain to finally extinguish the blaze.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service's head of operations Shaun Baker said that the attention would now turn to a 'multi-agency approach', to make sure that there can be no repeat of the fire, which has caused large scale disruption to both the town – and nearby M54.
The incident is understood to have been the longest running in the county since the fire service were tasked with putting out a blaze at Kingpin Tyres in Wem back in 2010.
Fire commanders have faced numerous difficulties in dealing with the incident, with the dangerous building preventing access, and the need to take around 20,000 litres of contaminated water off site, every day.
Mr Baker said the fire was now '99 per cent out', with "no smoke or visible flames".
He added: "There will be a multi-agency attendance at the site looking at what happens now, making sure it does not happen again."
'Balancing act'
The impact of smoke from the site has seen nearby schools affected, residents asked to close their windows, air quality monitoring installed, and speed limits introduced to the M54 due to the risk of smoke causing a major accident.
Area commander Guy Williams said the nature of the site had hampered the speed at which they could attack the fire, and that it had been a "balancing act" as they tried to juggle the complexities of the layout.
He said it had been a "really difficult" task for the crews dealing with the fire, as they had to shuffle bits from one part to another, while making sure the contaminated water was kept on the concrete portions of the site.
Mr Williams said: "I am pleased to say the fire is progressing, the main smoke and fire has been extinguished, we are now moving onto the recovery phase where we hope to hand the site to partners from the Environment Agency on Wednesday.
"We are still making sure the weather does not sweep off toxic water to the public and we are working with partners and contractors to make sure the piles do not re-ignite.
"Good progress is being made and this incident will soon be handed over to the Environment Agency in the week."
Telford & Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies has thanked the fire service for their efforts, saying: "A huge thanks to our colleague in the fire service for their immense work over the last few weeks. They have literally set up a temporary fire station on site and worked around the clock to bring this under control."
