Fire crews to remain at scrapyard near Broad Town overnight (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Fire crews to remain at scrapyard near Broad Town overnight

4:58pm Friday 6th July 2012 in News

Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service could be at the scene of a significant scrapyard fire well into tomorrow.

Firefighters were called to Swindon Metal Solutions at 3.30pm yesterday, where they found multiple scrap cars, a large stack of tyres and a workshop well alight.

During the initial stages of the incident, a huge plume of black smoke from the site could be seen from as far away as Devizes and Amesbury. Eight fire engines were needed at the height of the blaze, although this was reduced to three in the early hours of today.

Yesterday afternoon, a firefighter from Swindon was taken to hospital suffering from heat exhaustion. He was kept in overnight for observation and tests but was discharged on Friday morning.

At 4.30pm today four fire engines were at the scene, together with two water carriers, an aerial appliance and an incident command vehicle.

Crews have been working with the Environment Agency to empty two large tankers of waste oil that are within the scrapyard; they have also helped to clear up oil that had already leaked onto the ground. This work is now complete.

A couple of significant hotspots remain within the main yard and these are still being tackled.

The main fire remains within the stack of approximately 1,000 tyres – heavy plant is now on site to break the stack down, allowing firefighters to have better access. Compressed air foam will also be used in a bid to extinguish the blaze.

It is anticipated that the incident will continue through the night and into tomorrow.