Smoke plume from Lancaster industrial estate fire now "under control" after almost three weeks

Friday, 22 December 2023 06:52

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Crews tackling the fire at the Lune Industrial Estate. Image by Lancashire Fire and Rescue.

Firefighters have begun to scale down their presence at the site of a major industrial estate fire in Lancaster almost three weeks after it broke out.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said the smoke plume from the Lune Industrial Estate fire was now "under control" and they had "started to strategically reduce our presence at the site".

The fire at the former A1 Supa Skips site on Port Royal Avenue broke out on Sunday morning, December 3.

Since then, crews have been on site trying to extinguish the fire, a task made difficult as its seat was beneath large quantities of compact waste and pockets of fire can continue to smoulder deep within the piles for a long time.

Buildings on the site were also structurally unsafe and had to be demolished, paid for by Lancaster City Council, to help crews access the fire, which involved 13,000 tonnes of commercial waste.

"Several specialist appliances including the high-volume pump and aerial ladder platform have been released from the incident ground, leaving standard fire engines in place," said a Lancashire Fire and Rescue spokesperson, on Thursday.

"Firefighters remain in attendance to continue site monitoring and damping down as required.

"We would once again like to thank Lancaster's residents and local businesses for their continued support and patience during this protracted incident."

They said temperature monitoring at the site was ongoing.

Then on Friday, a spokesperson said: "The fire appears to be extinguished and there is no more smoke being given off from the site. Regular monitoring will continue but we are now scaling back our attendance at the incident ground."

Read the background to this story here:

Crews at Lancaster skips site ‘confident fire will be out by end of week’ - Beyond Radio

More pain for Lancaster mobile phone users as signal problems persist following fire - Beyond Radio

INTERVIEW: Resident tells of "thick acrid choking smoke" causing misery after Lancaster industrial estate fire - Beyond Radio

Lancaster MP calls on PM for urgent help after Lancaster industrial estate fire "environmental disaster" - Beyond Radio

Health advice issued as crews continue to tackle Lancaster industrial estate fire one week on - Beyond Radio

Lancaster primary school keeps pupils indoors as impact of industrial estate fire continues - Beyond Radio

Council to pay up to £262,000 in demolition costs at fire-ravaged former Lancaster skip hire site - Beyond Radio

Lancaster MP calls for urgent action on skip hire site after 'major incident' declared - Beyond Radio