Kidderminster recycling firm will burn all week say fire chiefs

Almost 100 firefighters were called to tackle the fire at Lawrence Recycling in Stourport Road at 5.20pm last night.

The crews had the blaze under control at midnight but they were continuing to contain it today and will need to be on site for the rest of the week.

The road outside the plant was closed by police overnight – it opened at 5.30am this morning.

Heavy smoke still billows from the affected three warehouse bays at the plant and can still be seen from miles around.

Speaking from the scene today, Jon Pryce, area commander for Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We are containing it at the moment, but the structure is now unsafe and is proving difficult for us to access at this time.

"Our main priority is to keep it contained where it is and stop it spreading to the rest of the site."

He added: "We will be here all week – residents should also expect to see the smoke plume for at least a week, although I'm hoping it will reduce as the week goes by."

The fire service is working with the Environment Agency to continue to assess the smoke plume and ensure people living nearby are safe – but currently commander Pryce said there was 'no issue'.

He added: "The good news is the weather conditions are lifting it up and dispersing of it nicely and not providing a hazard to people's health."

The same recycling plant was the subject of a giant blaze on December 12, when 80 firefighters spent six days tackling the flames.

The fire shut the firm for a month and it had only began resuming full operations this month, managing director David Lawrence said

It is devastating, sad news," he said at the sight today.

"I had a call at 5.25pm from the security team telling me that the fire service were in attendance. I came at 5.45pm and saw bay 3 on fire."

He said the plant had closed on Saturday at 4pm and only a security team was on site when the fire started. Superintendent Kevin Purcell, of West Merica Police, said: "At this moment in time, the fire is unexplained, not suspicious, however our officers will work with the fire service to try and establish the cause of fire and will pick up anything if it is deemed to be suspicious."

He added: "We know people are concerned about road closure and any issues from plume and we are working with partners to keep an eye on in terms of risk assessment with smoke.

"It is worth people keeping their windows and doors closed." Along with the fire service, they will view CCTV footage taken before the blaze started today.

Christopher Courtney, a former British Sugar factory worker on Stourport Road, aged 47, who lives in Offmore nearby, said he believed residents would be concerned following the second blaze at Lawrence Recycling in just six months.

He said: "The site used to be a forge dealing with red hot ingots and there were never any troubles with fires then.

"At the British sugar site we had our own fire brigade on site if anything happened. I think people will be a bit wary that it's the second fire in such a short time."

Ed Williams, a taxi driver from Kempsey, Droitwich, drove over for a closer look at the smoke plumes he could see from his home 20 miles away.

The 32-year-old said: "It looked like a tornado cloud so I thought I had better get down here to check."

Martin Knight, the owner of the same taxi firm, added: "It only appeared to get worse the longer we watched it."