UK suffers another large plastics fire

The second large plastics fire in as many weeks broke out at a factory in Sheffield on Sunday (14th July).

The blaze at the Sheffield Reclaim plant in the Attercliffe area of the city is thought to have initially involved nearby refuse, which spread to the factory, involving around 20 tonnes of plastic.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service said there were no casualties from the fire, but large plumes of black smoke spread across the local area with residents advised to go indoors and keep their doors and windows closed. It has not yet commented on what caused the blaze.

Incident Commander, Rick Rolt, said: "We were really worried about the fire spreading to neighbouring buildings such as Veolia. Then there would have been lots of potentially hazardous problems and we'd have been looking at evacuations. But the crews put some fire breaks in to stop the fire spreading, and they managed to contain it to the premise involved."

Fire crews had managed to extinguish most of the fire by Monday morning (15th July), with crews turning over the plastic to look for hot spots.