Rubbish blaze smoulders on - 10 days on

Firefighters are still battling a blaze which started in a mound of burning rubbish at a household recycling unit in Kingswinford 10 days ago.

The 50,000 ton pile of waste has continued to smoulder due to the heat inside and crews have been visiting the unit in Oak Lane every four hours to keep it under control.

Workers at Oakham Environmental Waste were due to start moving the 80ft high rubbish mound this morning so that fire crews could hose it down to stop it from burning further.

Diggers have been used to open up gaps in the mound for firefighters to access some of the hotspots but there have been some areas within the mound still smouldering.

Watch commander Jim Hill, from Brierley Hill fire station said: "The fire is so deep-seated that we can't start damping it all until we can move the rubbish."

Ten crews were called out to tackle the fire when it broke out at 8.32pm on April 23.