West Bromwich Fire

[Heartland]

Today a serious fire happened in industrial units beside Kelvin Way, West Bromwich which may be the Envira Recycling depot. The M5 has been closed north bound and this location  is also near the BCN Spon Lane Locks

 

 

[BEngo]

At least the Fire Brigade will know where to get some water. 😊😊

 

N

[ditchcrawler]

It always seems to be these scrap yards, sorry, recycling centres that go up 

[BEngo]

Like chip shops perhaps?

 

Clears things out, provides a new start.....

 

Recycling outfits are naturally vulnerable sites, especially if car breaking is involved, with lots of low value flammables just waiting for an ignition source.  Lots of those in some recycled materials.  Hard to take preventive measures  without losing viability.

 

 

N

[Heartland]

The drone footage published on line shows the fire in a stack of cardboard on one side of the site with Envira trailers nearby. Several reports mention that the stack comprised 300 tonnes of compressed cardboard. But the acrid black smoke may suggest that plastic was also placed in this area.

[TheBiscuits]

15 hours ago, BEngo said:

At least the Fire Brigade will know where to get some water. 😊😊

 

N

 

The water between the Crow and Spon Lane would probably burn - there's still more than a trace of oil in it many years after the boats stopped running.

 

 

[robtheplod]

Random fires will become quite common as we go into the winter i suspect - struggling businesses......

[Richard T]

Waste/recycling sites are notorious for fires. However the owners rarely put in adequate fire supression systems as they cost substantial amounts of money. However in the event of a fire the consequential losses through not being able to trade and honour contracts can be huge. The fire load can be very large. When I designed the buildings for the site at South Kirkby near Wakefield the vulnerable buildings were fitted with either sprinklers or remote controlled water cannon - this was a requirement of the insurers. Building regulations only cover dangers to human life and the need to safeguard neighbouring properties and are not concerned about consequential losses.

[MtB]

4 hours ago, Richard T said:

Building regulations only cover dangers to human life and the need to safeguard neighbouring properties and are not concerned about consequential losses.

 

 

This was the case until about 20 years ago, but nowadays BRs mandate stuff nothing to do with safety, e.g. insulation levels, what sort of windows you can have, boilers must be condensing, sleeping areas must be in a separate heating zone and seemingly endless other political, planet-saving stuff.

[Richard T]

14 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

This was the case until about 20 years ago, but nowadays BRs mandate stuff nothing to do with safety, e.g. insulation levels, what sort of windows you can have, boilers must be condensing, sleeping areas must be in a separate heating zone and seemingly endless other political, planet-saving stuff.

I was referring to Part B which covers Fire safety not the other parts which cover a multitude of other things