ARE WE STARTING TO NOTICE THE IMPACTS OF “SMALL” INDUSTRIAL FIRES?
Two recent industrial fires have highlighted a shift in the pattern of industrial fire incidents across the UK. While neither fire involved a large warehouse or major manufacturing complex, the two incidents placed an enormous burden on the fire and rescue services, local communities and the wider environment, and both raise an uncomfortable question about the far larger unprotected facilities standing across the UK.
A fire at an industrial building on 15th April in Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire, required 13 crews from three counties to bring under control. The blaze involved large quantities of industrial waste alongside buildings, timber and trailers. Firefighting operations did not conclude until ten days after the fire was first reported. The Environment Agency has since launched an investigation, with part of its inquiry focused on whether the fire occurred on the estate itself or on land adjacent to it. It was the second fire in the area in eight years, and the local MP has reported residents' concerns over air quality, contamination and whether their health was being adequately protected.
Two weeks later, on 29th April, a fire broke out at a small industrial building handling rubber in Bradford. The building itself was unremarkable in scale but the firefighting response was not. Fifteen fire crews from across West Yorkshire attended with aerial support while local residents were urged to keep doors and windows closed. The smoke plume was reported as far away as Brighouse. A neighbouring chemical plant temporarily halted operations so that crews could use its land to fight the fire.
Even the more recent fire at a recycling facility in Widnes on 23rd June illustrates the point. The collection of products on site was in the hundreds of tonnes but the building itself was again unremarkable in scale. Twenty-five fire engines from Chesire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Wales and Merseyside attended to contain the blaze.
When compared to fires in recent years, these were not large fires. But that is precisely the point. A fire does not need to consume a vast logistics centre to become a major incident. Fires starting in yards, in waste facilities, on adjacent land or in small ancillary buildings are increasingly tying up regional firefighting resources for days at a time, and their environmental footprint extends far beyond the site boundary.
Every such incident sends combustion products from plastics, rubber and mixed waste over nearby homes. Every hour of firefighting consumes vast quantities of water, with run-off carrying contaminants towards watercourses and land. Furthermore, every protracted incident leaves behind questions about air quality, monitoring and clean-up that communities are left to live with long after the crews depart. As the Environment Agency stated in relation to the Sutton Bonington fire, communities should not have to tolerate pollution.
According to the most recent fire statistics for England, industrial premises were the setting for 19,766 primary fires over the period 2014/15 to 2023/24, resulting in 1,071 casualties and 23 fatalities.1 Behind the headline figures sits a steady drumbeat of smaller incidents whose cumulative cost, in firefighting resources, business disruption and environmental harm, rarely makes the national news.
Containing a fire at its earliest stage remains the best way to limit damage, protect the environment and minimise costs. Sprinklers have been proven to contain, control or extinguish fires in 99% of cases when caused to operate.2 A fire stopped in minutes does not burn for ten days, does not blanket a town in smoke, and does not generate thousands of litres of contaminated run-off.
"What these incidents continue to show is that the fire service ability to intervene in such industrial fires is challenged and the notion of a small industrial fire needs a rethink," said Tom Roche, Secretary of the Business Sprinkler Alliance. "A fire involving a single building or a yard of stored materials can still demand crews from three counties, close roads, halt neighbouring businesses and leave communities worrying about the air they breathe. If incidents on this scale can flow from such modest beginnings, we should be deeply concerned about the far larger storage and distribution buildings going up across the country without sprinkler protection."
The pattern is a familiar one. Sites holding combustible materials such as waste, timber, rubber or plastics often lack the fire suppression and site management measures that would stop an ignition becoming an incident. By contrast, fires in sprinkler-protected buildings tend to be contained or extinguished before they can escalate, limiting damage, preserving business continuity and sparing both fire crews and the environment.
Fire protection is environmental protection. As the ten-day operation at Sutton Bonington and the smoke over Bradford both demonstrate, the cost of a fire is never confined to the building in which it starts. It is measured in the air above our towns, the water in our rivers, and the weeks of disruption that follow. Investing in proven fire protection is the surest way to keep that cost from being paid at all.
1https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables#non-dwelling-fires-attended
2Efficiency and Effectiveness of Sprinkler Systems in the United Kingdom: An Analysis from Fire Service Data – Optimal Economics May 2017
Image Credit: Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service