Deeside Industrial Park blaze now under control

May 7 2008 by Lois Bishop, Chester Chronicle

A HUGE blaze at Paperback Recycling on Deeside Industrial Park is now under control.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service is in the process of ‘dampening down’ the remaining fire on Tenth Avenue in Zone three.

Firefighters were called to the incident at 10.33am today (Wednesday) and are expected to remain there well into the night.

Ian Williams, the operations commander, said: “As the building is structurally so unsafe, we are unable to send firefighters into the building to carry out the work that remains and are therefore relying on two aerial ladder platforms to carry out the operation from outside the building. Whereas the fire is under control, it will take a while longer to extinguish it completely.”

A number of appliances remain in attendance at the scene - two from Deeside, two from Flint, two from Buckley as well as two aerial ladder platforms from Wrexham and Rhyl and an incident command unit from Colwyn Bay.

They are being supported by one appliance from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The fire at the collection and recycling plant was well alight when crews arrived this morning and it had spread throughout the premises.

Everyone was safely evacuated from the building as well as from the buildings immediately adjacent. There was no hazardous material involved.

The cause of the fire is thought to have been due to recycled paper overheating.

Mr Williams added: “The Paperback Recycling plant specialises in recycling shredded paper from another plant. That supply of shredded paper must have still been warm when tipped here and when it was exposed to the air on such a warm day, it caught fire, which spread quickly to other paper being stored at the premises.”