Fire will burn into the New Year

Firefighters issued an alert last week, following the fire in 1,000 tonnes of material at the site leased to the company, Good 2 Grow Recycling Ltd, on land owned by Grundon, in Beenham.
On November 30, the huge pile of organic material - the size of a football pitch - spontaneously combusted, sending plumes of smoke drifting for miles and fire chiefs decided the best procedure was to let it burn out.
The RBFRS - who this week confirmed the fire is set to blaze for two more weeks - has warned residents to keep windows closed and stay indoors and for anyone affected to seek medical advice.
This week, Christopher Wheelwright, a director of Good 2 Grow, issued a statement confirming that a serious machine fire in August at the plant forced the company to cease trading in October:
“Sadly all staff were laid off as of the 1st November and G2G Ltd had no presence on site thereafter,” said Mr Wheelwright.
Apologising to affected residents, Mr Wheelwright said: “We were notified by Grundons of a fire at the site on the afternoon of 30th November and offered to try to give assistance, this offer was not accepted at that time,” he said, pointing out the only materials at the facility were wood and green waste.
Grundon, whiich leased the site to Good2Grow in 2009, issued the following statement yesterday (Wed Dec 19):
“When Good2Grow Compost approached Grundon to lease land to expand their business, they were an established composting company.
The site was operated under an Environmental Permit issued by the Environment Agency – who will only issue Permits to companies they believe are able to meet the necessary operating and health and safety standards. Any necessary risk assessments would have been addressed by the EA during the permitting process. The EA is also responsible for monitoring both site operations and the suitability of the waste.”
The Environment Agency issued a statement on Tuesday (December 19), confirming the agency was investigating whether Good2Grow had breached any of its permit conditions.
The EA has received 14 complaints about the fire, mostly about smoke and ash and also health issues and says smoke declined significantly over the weekend.
West Berkshire Council confirmed yesterday (Wed Dec 19) the council had now received 25 enquiries about the fire - double the amount received last week.