Morden blaze: the flames could be seen from far in the distance of Merton’s Garth Road recycling centre
The London Fire Brigade is advising residents across a large part of south London to keep their windows and doors closed through today, despite the summer heat, due to the heavy smoke from a recycling centre fire on Amenity Way, Morden, in the early hours of this morning.
The Fire Brigade was called out just before 3am, and said that they had the fire under control by 8.30am.
Initially, eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters were called out, but an hour later they had doubled the number of fire engines attending, and had 100 firefighters at the site, on call from stations including Mitcham, Sutton, Wimbledon, Wallington and Norbury.
Station Commander Scott Thorpe at the scene said: “Local residents are advised to keep windows and doors closed at this time due to the heavy smoke in the area.”
According to the LFB, a pile of rubbish measuring 20 metres by 5 metres was alight.
Dangerous work: it took around 100 firefighters almost five hours to get the fire under control
“Crews worked tirelessly throughout the night in extremely hot conditions,” Station Commander Thorpe said. “This is a protracted incident and crews are expecting to remain on scene for many hours to come.
“It’s expected to be a warm day but we’re reminding local residents to continue to keep their windows and doors due to the heavy smoke.”
And he added: “Specialist teams are working to monitor air quality in the area,” which suggests some concerns about the substances that were burning in the fire.
The fire occurred on a site at Garth Road where there is both a Merton Council tip and a Suez commercial waste recycling centre.
The Fire Brigade is investigating the cause. There are continuing issues with batteries included in mixed waste causing fires. Merton Council issued a warning just two days ago asking residents to separate batteries from their rubbish, after a fire on a Veolia refuse truck.
Until a few weeks ago, the working practices and standards at these centres were the responsibility of the South London Waste Partnership, of which Croydon is a member, and Merton Labour’s cabinet member for environmental matters, Natasha Irons, now the MP for Croydon East.
Dawn vigil: the London Fire Brigade said that they had got the Morden fire under control after a five-hour operation
This is the latest major blaze to occur at various waste and recycling plants across south London.
The greatest concern over this morning’s fire must be around what were the substances burning in the blaze: the photographs provided by the LFB suggested that the fire was at the Suez plant, where it is suggested that their work includes “treatment and disposal of hazardous waste”.
Just as with toxic air pollution from the chimneys of the Beddington Lane incinerator, Croydon is downwind of the Merton recycling centre fire.
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