Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service have now finished covering the fire at Oak Tree Farm in Slitting Mill. The Fire and Rescue Service were switching operational tactics from pulling apart and damping down the waste stack, to covering it over and ‘capping’ it with soil.
Capping the waste stack with soil has decreased the amount of smoke and flames being generated, reducing any risk to residents living in the local area and people working on the site.
The site has now been handed over to Staffordshire County Council, but members of the Fire and Rescue Service will be returning to the site to monitor the progress of the fire with thermal imaging equipment. They have reassured residents that any new issues relating to the fire will be responded to quickly.
Cannock Chase Council and Staffordshire County Council continue to test the air at Oak Tree Farm and the air quality monitoring results will be published on Cannock Chase Council’s website daily.
It has been an incredibly tough and frustrating few weeks for the residents of Rugeley and other areas of Cannock Chase, who have experienced the smoke being emitted from the fire.
I can totally understand the strength of feeling and anger about this issue. Put simply, this should have never been allowed to happen in the first instance. Since the fire started I have been in regular contact with Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service and other agencies and have attended various meetings with them. I would like to reassure you that at every point, I have been making sure everyone is aware of the public's concerns and I have been trying to ensure these are understood and addressed.
You will not be surprised to learn that I have received huge volumes of calls, visits to my office, emails and social media messages with a wide range of queries - many very specific. I am collating all of these but hope to address some of the broad themes in this post. I hope you will understand that I can't necessarily, at this point in time, address every specific query.
I attended the site last week and was overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge faced by our firefighters. I would like to thank our firefighters for all of their efforts to try and put out the fire under very difficult circumstances. As you will be aware the tactics taken to put out the fire have had to change and evolve over the last couple of weeks. I will summarise these below and hope to explain why certain decisions were made.
On first attendance the fire crews attempted to extinguish the fire, however, the fire quickly spread to the whole stack and it was clear that the volumes of water that would be required to extinguish the fire would have a negative impact on the local aquifer. In conjunction with the Environment Agency the decision was made to adopt a different approach.
The decision was then made to try and encourage combustion by managing the burn, in short trying to get rid of the material burning by increasing the heat in the fire and making the smoke rise higher to reduce the impact on the local community. Unfortunately, the scale of the fire meant that whilst progress was being made everyone was still being heavily impacted by the smoke, which remained low in the sky.
The need to extinguish the fire in another way was clear and the fire service employed an approach whereby they were using heavy excavators and drenching the material with a water based solution. Again, whilst progress was made, unfortunately during this exercise a small amount of asbestos cement board was found in the stack. This meant that the works had to be suspended to take an approach that provided the lowest risk to the firefighters. I am sure you will agree we can't put our firefighters in such a dangerous position.
As a result of the presence of asbestos last week, capping the fire was the preferred option. Whilst this action will not put the fire out it will provide a fixed barrier which will significantly reduce the amount of smoke being generated from the site. The stack will potentially produce smoke from time to time and remain very hot for some considerable time. The stack will remain dangerous and the public should not go near it as the burning can produce pockets in the stack that people could fall into if they walk on it.
I have raised a number of issues with the relevant agencies regarding this particular method of putting out the fire, as it is important that the fire and the stack of materials on the site are not forgotten. Although the waste is essentially buried it remains a fire risk and a contaminant to the land, so it is essential that it is removed when it is safe to do so. I will continue to press this point at every opportunity.
Moving on from the capping, I have stressed the need for the site to be monitored, secured and the incident fully investigated. As I have said, I totally agree with many of the points made to me that we should never have found ourselves in this situation in the first instance. There are understandably many questions as to how we came to be in this position. For example, what investigations and actions were already underway and what measures are going to be taken to ensure we never find ourselves in this situation again?
This issue is multi-faceted and I feel at this stage it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the issues relating to historic activities as well as the events and investigations leading up to and resulting from the fire. It is essential that we do not compromise any investigation or enforcement so I think it is right and proper that we let the agencies review all the avenues they have available to them. Please be reassured that I have applied, and will continue to apply, significant levels of pressure on the various organisations to pursue this case in the most robust way. After weeks of suffering the consequences of the fire, rightly residents want to see action taken, but I do think it is important to allow due process to take its course. I will also be reviewing legislation to assess whether there are currently any gaps and will pursue this with Ministers in due course.
I fully appreciate that the smoke has been a real nuisance and irritant - living in Brereton myself I know this from first-hand experience. But I know, and understand why, many people are very concerned about the health consequences of the smoke, especially in light of the presence of asbestos. The cement board has a low asbestos content and the public advice for residents has not changed as a result of this discovery. Residents are advised to stay away from the smoke if it is present and keep windows and doors closed. I have been calling on authorities to monitor the air quality and welcome the fact that the local council are now using equipment to monitor it.
I will continue to keep my website and Facebook page up to date with any further information. As I have mentioned, I have received so many questions and queries on the fire that I am collating all the questions on behalf of residents and seeking answers from the relevant professionals. As your MP I am here to represent you, I am not part of any of the bodies responsible to fighting, preventing or investigating the fire, but I will continue to seek the answers local residents seek.
As always, if I can be of any further assistance with this, or any other issue, please contact me at my constituency office.