Huge fire near Carlisle airport

Four fire crews are still tackling a huge tyre fire last night at Crosby-on-Eden, near Carlisle airport.

Fire chiefs said the firefighting operation had been scaled down but they expected 'defensive' fire-fighting to continue for some time due to the intensity of the blaze.

The Environment Agency said it did not expect the plume of smoke - visible for miles around - to pose any risk to health.

After the fire broke out in the early hours of this morning, more than 80 firefighters from across Cumbria battled to control what became one of the biggest fires seen in the county for years.

Eight crews together with specialist firefighting services were called to the mountain of tyres, which burst into flames at 2.30am at the FC Tyre Collection Services at Crosby-on-Eden.

The thick plume of grey smoke billowing from the blaze was today visible from several miles away.

Eye-witnesses spoke of seeing flames climbing more than 60ft into the air as the blaze took hold this morning.

A family living at Holme Ends Farm, about 400ft away from the tyre pile, were put on standby to evacuate as fire-fighters battled to stop the flames spreading to buildings to just 20ft away.

People living near the blaze were warned to keep their windows closed – though experts believed the plume was not heading for any major centres of population.

The massive grey smoke column was today visible for miles around.

Fire engines – including a specialist high-volume tender from Kendal – poured thousands of litres of water per minute onto the tyre pile, measuring 1,000m by 500m.

The crews successfully created a curtain of water which prevented the flames from spreading to buildings.

Residents today spoke of their fears of a bigger disaster if the fire had spread.

Mum-of-four Lesley Nattrass, who lives in a cottage 500ft from the fire, told how her son Stuart, 27, called her at 4.30am while she was working a nightshift at Tesco’s Rosehill supermarket in Carlisle.

She said: “Even from the main road, a couple of miles away as I drove home, I could see the scale of the fire.

“It was dark but you could still see the glow of the flames and the smoke rising into the sky. It was just tremendous.

“It was very frightening because all of my family, including my father Robin Scott who is 70, live here. I was in such a state when I got back but the firefighters were brilliant.

“I can’t thank them enough. They even offered me a cup of hot chocolate.

“But the really worrying thing was that if the wind was blowing in a different direction or the wind direction had changed this thing could have spread to all the houses.”

Stuart said: “I was woken up in the middle of night when the fire engines arrived.

“A policeman came to the door and asked us to get ready to be evacuated because the fire-service were trying to create a fire break.

“There’s a fuel tank at the side of one of the buildings here and they obviously didn’t want it to spread to that. If it had, everything would have gone up in flames. When we first saw the fire, the flames were higher than the engineering shed, about 60ft into the air.”

Residents worked alongside firefighters to move bags of shredded tyres away from the edge of the fire.

John McVay, area manager and head of service delivery for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, said initially three crews were sent to the scene but five more were called in when the scale of the fire became clear.

They came from Carlisle, Brampton, Longtown, Aspatria, Wigton, Lazonby, Penrith and Kendal, as well as a fire-crew from Carlisle Airport.

Firefighters from Penrith have also been drafted in to cover Carlisle fire station while all their crews battle the blaze.

Mr McVay added: “This fire has broken out in what is just a huge quantity of tyres, literally thousands of them.

“We don’t know how this started but the fire has been so severe that we have not been able to get close enough yet to start any kind of investigation.

“The damage will be so severe that it will be very difficult to get any kind of evidence but at this stage it is not being treated as suspicious. It’s just too early yet.

“At its worst, the height of the flames were at least 20 metres when I arrived but there were already firefighting operations going on when I got here at 3am.”

He explained how firefighters created a curtain of water between the blaze and nearby farm buildings successfully preventing the fire spreading.

He said: “This has been impressive work from the fire crews and everybody else involved. We have not seen anything on this scale for at least a couple of years.

“People here have done a magnificent job and we worked with our partners in the Environment Agency, Health Protection Agency, emergency planning and the local authority.”

Article created by Editor. (info@safetynetscotland.co.uk)