THE recent fire at ESS Ltd, a recycling business on the Leyland Trading Estate, has raised serious concerns within Wellingborough Chamber about the safety of these facilities around the county. The fire, which destroyed the old British Leyland building on Friday 4 April, has left two businesses without premises and affected many others during the incident. The fire service has now confirmed that the fire was started accidentally by an angle grinder. This is the third major fire in Wellingborough since 2009 at a recycling centre and others have also occurred across the county.
THE recent fire at ESS Ltd, a recycling business on the Leyland Trading Estate, has raised serious concerns within Wellingborough Chamber about the safety of these facilities around the county. The fire, which destroyed the old British Leyland building on Friday 4 April, has left two businesses without premises and affected many others during the incident. The fire service has now confirmed that the fire was started accidentally by an angle grinder. This is the third major fire in Wellingborough since 2009 at a recycling centre and others have also occurred across the county. The Chamber thinks that lessons need to be learnt so that another major fire can be averted and that risks to other businesses located near to these facilities should be properly assessed. A multi-agency emergency planning group will be meeting to investigate the implications of this and other fires and hopefully some recommendations can emerge from this work that can address the issues of fire safety at these types of premises and other high-risk facilities. Major fires at any business will be a catastrophic event, could endanger life and will certainly cause business loss and continuity issues. The Chamber would recommend that all businesses review their fire safety risk assessment and ensure that all personnel are aware of the fire evacuation procedures and are suitably trained in fire prevention where this is identified as a risk. The Health and Safety Executive has support and guidance available for businesses at www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/fire.htm and so does the County Fire and Rescue Service www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/fire/fireandrescue/bfs/pages/default.aspx The Wellingborough Chamber hopes that the relevant agencies will be able to investigate this latest incident and feed back to the businesses community on any relevant recommendations or best practice which will help to prevent these types of fires occurring in the future.