Cooking oil tank fire at Church refinery
10:29am Tuesday 15th April 2008
A BLAZE in an industrial tank containing 22,000 litres of highly flammable oil left residents waking up to a "horrible smell."
The fire, at the Prosper De Mulder (PDM) refinery, Bridge Street, Church, saw lagging around the seven-metre-high tank catch fire at around 5.40am this morning.
Fire crews spent three hours ensuring that the blaze did not spread to the oil, which was being stored before being made into biofuel.
Watch manager Steven Hartley said the insulation around the tank was "well alight" when crews arrived.
They tackled the fire with foam before cutting away the insulation to avoid the fire starting again.
The oil, which was mostly used chip fat oil, was then decanted into another container.
The Prosper De Mulder (PDM) refinery creates biofuel from used cooking oils and rotisserie fats.
Mr Hartley said: "Luckily there were workers on the site when the fire started and they were able to alert us immediately.
"It would appear that the fire started as a result of an accident but if it had been allowed to burn for a period of time before we arrived it could have been a very serious incident indeed.
"The operation to make the scene safe was very time consuming and we had to make sure that the fire would not spread and that the area was dampened down."
A spokesman for PDM refused to comment in detail but said that the fire was "not a major incident".
But local resident, Joyce Dearnaley, 59, of Walmsley Close, said the incident was a "real concern".
The grandma to 11 children said: "I woke up and there was a horrible smell.
"I looked outside and you could see a lot of smoke coming from the site.
"I heard the fire engines and could see them near the factory.
"My house is only across the road to the industrial park and it is very worrying when things like this happen."
Another resident of Walmsley Close, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "I heard a lot of noise and you could really smell a terrible burning."
New government regulations, which came into force this week mean that 2.5 per cent of all petrol and diesel sold at UK forecourts must come from renewable biofuels.
But the use of biofuels has been criticised by environmentalists who claim that the production of the fuel is damaging to the planet.
Biofuels produced in Britain have been praised while crops grown for fuel on cleared rainforest abroad and then transported half-way across the globe have been slammed.