Swindon railway fire destroys historic tools
It has been reported that a recent blaze at Swindon and Cricklade Railway has caused thousands of pounds worth of damage, destroying a number of tools which had been passed down through many generations.
The fire, which is not thought to have been started deliberately, ripped through a timber shed where the equipment had been stored at Blunsdon station.
The volunteer railway workers have been left devastated over the damaged items.
Vice-chairman Dave Peace said:
“This is an accumulation of items that have been passed down the generations from the original railways, or donated by members of the community, so we are gutted.
“Originally I thought it would be about £4,000 worth of tools, but it is looking more like £8,000 now.
“We had tools, strimmers, everything, it’s all gone and now there is the possibility that the land is contaminated and the land will have to be cleared.”
The cause of the blaze is thought to have been due to a spark from a hydraulic crane in the process of being dismantled close to the shed.
This incident comes not long after the railway was damaged by vandals.
The festive Santa Specials are still going ahead as planned, the organisers have confirmed.
Fire-damaged plastic recycling plant to open again
A large plastic bottle recycling plant in Lincolnshire which suffered damage from a fire last August is now due to reopen, just over a year later.
It took around 70 firefighters to tackle the blaze when it was at its height, at the AWS Eco Plastics site in Hemswell Cliff, close to Gainsborough, back in the August of 2009.
The flames were so fierce that smoke could be seen for miles, which is why it took fire crews two days to finally extinguish the fire.
The fire was found to have been started by a faulty fan unit.
The rebuilding job has taken time but the facility is now the largest of its type in Europe, according to Jonathan Short, speaking on behalf of the company.
Mr Short is also keen to move forward rather than look back at the devastation caused to the plant by the blaze, which cost the business millions of pounds.
Nearly 100 people are employed at the recycling plant which sorts plastics, turning it into the beads from which bottles are made.
The plant is now set to open again over the next few weeks with many of the original staff to be re-employed in their old jobs.
Great Harwood mill fire being treated as suspicious
It has been revealed by fire chiefs that a huge blaze which devastated a mill in Great Harwood recently is believed to have started in suspicious circumstances.
An arson investigation by Lancashire Police is now underway into the fire at Albert Mill, on St Huberts Street, which involved up to 25 firefighters from Hyndburn, Great Harwood and Blackburn who tackled the flames for over three hours at 8pm on the evening of the 24th of November.
The fire, which was started in a unit of the building, managed to destroy a substantial amount of plastics and packaging before it was eventually put out by fire crews.
A Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said:
“Crews were called to the building in St Huberts Street shortly after 8pm after it was reported the mill was well alight. They are looking at the prospect of it being arson related.
“It was a large fire and a lot of firefighters were needed in order to get close enough proximity to the flames. It was a significant incident which wasn’t helped when the police had to be called because youths were trying to steal equipment. The crews were just trying to get on with their job so that was an annoyance.”
Gas explosion kills pensioner
Mr George Titterton died after a gas explosion at his house in Sheen in February this year. His body was found under rubble and debris by a police dog on the third day of the search.
An investigation into the cause of the fire has concluded that the most likely cause was the leaking of propane from two gas cylinders in the kitchen. Fire investigation officer Mark McCabe said ‘The gas migrated from the kitchen and mixed with the open fire’. It is likely that Mr Titterton was trying to change the cylinder when the explosion occurred.
PC Andrew Platt who was at the scene of the fire said “The front of the building had blown out on to the road. The whole of the inside of the building had collapsed.” The fire investigation took five days to carry out due to safety concerns. Most of the building had collapsed making it difficult to access.
Friends described Mr Titterton as an independent man who would always try jobs himself before asking people for help.
Findus – Frozen Food Factory Fire
360 workers have been made redundant following a fire 2 weeks ago at a factory producing frozen foods for Findus. (more…)