'Rogue vehicle' sparks fire at Stoke-on-Trent recycling yard

Bosses at a leading city recycling firm say a 'rogue vehicle' triggered a blaze at one of their plants. Firefighters were scrambled to Brown Recycling's Burslem-based scrap metal yard with neighbouring businesses told to keep their windows and doors shut.

Today and the firm says the fire at the Hot Lane Industrial Estate plant was down to a vehicle not being 'depolluted' and 'residual petrol' setting it alight. Bosses say they will not take any more vehicles from that supplier following the incident - which saw hydraulic fuel lines also catch fire.

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service was called to the scene at 11.50am with 'a number of crews' sent to the incident. The service said 'a hydraulic machine was found well alight, along with a number of rubber tyres and one scrap motor vehicle'.

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Brown Recycling has today clarified that it was two tyres on the shredder which caught alight - and that they do not keep tyres on their sites. Workers say it is the first incident of that type at the firm and procedures around 'depolluted vehicles' have been tightened following the blaze at the Florida Close yard.

A spokesperson said: "At Brown Recycling we work to the highest standards of compliance and safety in all areas of our waste management operation. Our Florida Close scrap metal recycling yard processes scrap metal of all types included vehicles that are fully depolluted, that is, all liquids such as petrol or diesel have been completely removed from the vehicle ahead of it coming on to our site.

"The fire at the site yesterday was caused by a rogue vehicle which had not been fully depolluted. As the vehicle was being processed through our mobile shredder, the residual petrol caused the vehicle to set on fire which in turn ignited the hydraulic fuel lines in the shredder mechanism. Two of the 12 tyres on the mobile shredder nearest to the source fire also caught fire causing some smoke to rise up."

Bosses have praised the actions of workers and firefighters - and say nobody was hurt.

The spokesperson added: "The situation was quickly contained by our on-site team and the fire service who responded promptly. We are pleased to say that no one was injured and as a result of our detailed and well-practiced fire management processes any potential risk of the fire spreading or causing any issues for local businesses and residents were minimal.

"This is the first incident of this type we have ever experienced. It was caused by the vehicle supplier declaring the vehicle was fully depolluted when they were aware this was not the case. They have been informed that we will not accept any further business from them. We have also further tightened our procedures for depolluted vehicles to minimise the risk of this happening again."

Today the fire service has deemed the blaze as accidental. A spokesman said: "Crews managed to bring the incident under control using main jets and hose reel jets.

"The motor vehicle was placed in a skip of water to ensure it was fully extinguished. Thankfully, no-one was injured.

"Crews carried out a thermal scan at about 3pm and concluded that no hotspots were leftover and the area was safe. The cause of the fire was later deemed to be accidental."

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