A ‘huge’ fire involving waste plastics has destroyed a disused industrial unit in Sheffield and caused ‘significant damage’ to an adjacent unit, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service has announced.

Firefighters were called to the blaze at Station Road, Ecclesfield at 10pm yesterday (3 September) after receiving reports of a fire at the disused industrial unit.

On arrival, the unit, which was ‘full of plastic materials’ (estimated to be around 2,000 tonnes) was found to be in the grips of a ‘fully involved’ fire that had spread to an adjacent car spray-painting unit.

At its height, 45 fire fighters were in attendance utilising eight fire engines and an aerial platform to fight back the blaze. By this morning (4 September) five fire engines were still at the scene.

Water is now being pumped from a local brook to enable firefighters to use three water jets. They are also creating an ‘on-site lagoon’ to recycle run-off water to minimise environmental damage.

Heavy machinery has also been requested to attend the scene, in order to pull the burning materials out of the unit so the fire can be extinguished. It is expected that the fire will last until Friday morning, at least.

‘No known toxin materials involved in the fire’

The fire service has said it is working with the Environment Agency and Public Health England to ‘decide on a tactical plan to minimise pollution in the local area’.

However, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service has said that there were ‘no known toxin materials involved in the fire’ and that the advice for residents to stay indoors is ‘a standard safety precaution due to the smoke plume’.

Station Road in Ecclesfield has remained closed for ‘safety reasons’ although some local businesses are being allowed access ‘where possible’.

An investigation into what triggered the fire will be undertaken in due course.

Waste site fires commonplace

Fires at waste sites are commonplace, with figures released last year showing that between 2001 and 2012, the average rate of fires at waste and recycling works came in at just under one per day. Indeed, firefighters were called to Viridor’s Trigon landfill site earlier this week to tackle a fire that has now been extinguished.

Further to the environmental and social damage that waste fires cause, the cost of clearing up such fires is extensive; the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has revealed that emergency services in Scotland spent £15.9 million tackling 8,000 waste fires in 2012/13.

The Environment Agency has released guidance aimed at reducing the outbreak of fire at waste storage sites. Prepared in partnership with the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA), the Technical Guidance Note (TGN) ‘Reducing Fire Risk at Sites Storing Combustible Materials’, identifies a range of measures that operators of waste storage sites should implement to minimise the risk of fire.

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