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| Smethwick fire: Crews at lantern fire scene for second day | Smethwick fire: Crews at lantern fire scene for second day |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| About 60 firefighters remain at a fire involving 100,000 tonnes of plastic recycling material, thought to have been sparked by a Chinese lantern. | About 60 firefighters remain at a fire involving 100,000 tonnes of plastic recycling material, thought to have been sparked by a Chinese lantern. |
| Plant machinery has been used to break up the bales of plastic to get to the seat of the fire. | Plant machinery has been used to break up the bales of plastic to get to the seat of the fire. |
| More than 200 firefighters attended the blaze, which began on Sunday night. Three were taken to hospital. | More than 200 firefighters attended the blaze, which began on Sunday night. Three were taken to hospital. |
| Fire chiefs have now called for an "urgent review" into the use of Chinese lanterns. | Fire chiefs have now called for an "urgent review" into the use of Chinese lanterns. |
| Investigators established a lantern, captured on CCTV falling on to the site, was to blame for the blaze. | Investigators established a lantern, captured on CCTV falling on to the site, was to blame for the blaze. |
| The blaze, which covered an area of about 90,000 sq m, was described by the fire service as one of the biggest it had dealt with in the West Midlands. Most of the fire has been extinguished but about 10 per cent of the site is still alight. | |
| The service said £6m damage had been caused to the Dartmouth Road site by the fire which was the 15th of its kind at a waste recycling site in the region this year. | The service said £6m damage had been caused to the Dartmouth Road site by the fire which was the 15th of its kind at a waste recycling site in the region this year. |
| 'Wisps of smoke' | |
| West Midlands Fire Service area commander Steve Vincent, said crews had made "good progress" tackling the fire. | |
| "It's been quite arduous for our firefighters overnight because there's still lots of plastic to dig out to make sure we can get to the bottom because it burns underneath," he said. | |
| "Seeing it from afar you'll just see wisps of smoke but there's lots of activity going on on the site to get this completely put out. | |
| "We've still got two high-volume pumping units which are taking water from the canals and one of those is from Staffordshire." | |
| The service hopes to partially re-open some of the roads. | |
| "The longer we leave these roads closed business are losing money and that can affect our wider communities," he said. | |
| Lanterns ban | |
| Following calls from the region's chief fire officer, Vij Randeniya, for a review to be conducted into the use of Chinese lanterns, the Liberal Democrats president has said they should be banned. | |
| Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, said: "There's been a lot of concern in rural areas and the farming community about the impact on livestock, on crops for many years and now we have an incident like this in an urban area. | |
| "I think the evidence does point to a ban." | |
| Police said Dartmouth Road, Halfords Lane and Brasshouse Lane are still closed to traffic. | Police said Dartmouth Road, Halfords Lane and Brasshouse Lane are still closed to traffic. |
| Nearby Galton Valley Primary School, in Brasshouse Lane, is closed for a second consecutive day because of the road closures. | Nearby Galton Valley Primary School, in Brasshouse Lane, is closed for a second consecutive day because of the road closures. |