18 Apr 2013
A ferocious paper mill blaze which saw ten thousand tons of cardboard go up in smoke is unlikely to burn out before the weekend, firefighters have warned.
Although the material burning is believed to be non-toxic, people living near the plant in the Nechells area of Birmingham were urged to stay indoors with windows and doors closed.
Around 100 firefighters were deployed to tackle the fire which engulfed seven acres of bales at the Smurfit Kappa plant near the M6 motorway.
The blaze started soon after 10pm on Wednesday and is expected to take a couple of days to burn out, according to a West Midlands Fire Service spokesman, who gave updated information via Twitter.
He tweeted: “Fire at Smurfit Kappa is in a very large outdoor storage area. Approx 10,000 tons of recycled cardboard bales are ablaze. Fire is contained to storage area, high winds are hampering fire fighting, however crews and other agencies are working extremely hard to bring blaze under control.”
West Midlands Police said there were no reported injuries.
Copyright Press Association 2013