Conveyor belt catches fire at clay plant in Devon market town

Part of a conveyor belt at a clay processing plant in Newton Abbot was destroyed by fire recently with fire crews called to the scene.

Firefighters from the civil parish in the Teignbridge District of Devon arrived at the Sibelco-run East Gold Works in Kingsteignton Road to extinguish the flames using a hose-reel jet and covering jet.

The alarm was raised around 2am by a night-shift worker as the building began to fill with thick black smoke due to the burning of the glass fibre casing covering the belt. However, the fire was not too serious in the end and the firefighters successfully avoided any danger.

A spokesman for the fire service, Tony Jones, said:

“It looked worse than it was because when we arrived we saw black smoke coming from the top-storey vent.

“But it was actually quite a small fire just affecting the belt which will have to be replaced.”

There has been an investigation into the fire which is thought to have been started accidentally and the company are now looking into fire risk at their site.

A spokesman for Sibelco said:

“The fire brigade were on site for approximately 90 minutes before declaring the situation safe and handing the site back over to Sibelco personnel.

“Sibelco have already commenced a full investigation to identify the root cause so that any lessons learned can be implemented to avoid any further incidents.”