Firefighters hit by water problems
FIREFIGHTERS who spent several hours tackling a blaze in a disused factory building were hampered by poor water pressure.
Investigations are continuing into the cause of the fire, which started in bales of paper and plastic, at the former Monoplas factory at Badger Lane, Hipperholme. Crews from Halifax, Illingworth and Brighouse attended the fire on Friday and a hose-laying unit was brought in to help with getting water supplies to the remote spot.
Station manager Andy Farrell, of Halifax and Illingworth, said: “When we got here the derelict building was well alight and our efforts to put it out were hampered by poor water pressure. Yorkshire Water were busy dealing with a burst water main elsewhere and were unable to assist immediately. We had to take water from the beck. We spent several hours at the scene damping down.”
There have been numerous fires on the site over the years, many of them attributed to arson. Members of Sunny Vale Residents’ Association have been in touch with the site’s current owners, Blackshaw Holdings, to express their concerns about waste material stored on the site and the secretary Mr John Wharton said things had improved recently.
“We asked them about a year ago if they could get rid of the waste material and the drums of chemicals that were kept on the site because we believed they could be a fire hazard. To be fair to the company, when the chairman Jim Jones and I visited the site about a month ago, these had been removed so we were mystified when a new lot of paper and plastics appeared. The material had obviously been processed because it was baled up. It looked as if it was being stored on the site which is a worry as it is so flammable.”
In 2007 there were three fires at the rural site within a few weeks. One of them, in September 2007, was a massive blaze which required the efforts of 100 firefighters to bring it under control after a series of explosions at the former plastics factory sent clouds of black smoke billowing across the site.
Blackshaw, which now owns the site, was founded in 1979 and specialises in letting residential, commercial and industrial property. The company, which has offices in the Clifton Mills complex at Bailiff Bridge, had no comment to make about Friday’s fire.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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