Giant blaze at Walsall rubbish tip

Five hundred tons of household waste went up in flames today in a severe fire at a recycling plant in Walsall.

A total of 75 firefighters were called from across the region to the council-run depot off Fryers Road in Bloxwich after the alarm was raised at 4.30am.

Walsall Council bosses vowed bin collections would continue as normal and said they would open their recycling centre in Merchants Way, Aldridge, for an extra day on Wednesday to cope.

Investigations into the cause of the blaze are now taking place.

Councillor Tom Ansell, Walsall's environment chief, said: "We have waste officers at the site this morning, liaising with fire crews, to establish the severity of the blaze and its impact.

"There was no-one working at Fryers Road when the fire broke out overnight and it was confined to the transfer station building.

"Residents can be reassured all their domestic bin collections, green waste collections and recycling will not be affected and we will bring them more information as and when we have it."