Date: 28th April, 2022
Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service has now left the landfill site in Compton Bassett, near Calne, which was affected by a large fire yesterday (27 April).
The Service was called to the site at 5.05am on Wednesday and, on arrival, found a a stack of approx. 40,000 tonnes of waste well alight.
At the height of the incident, there were around 40 firefighters in attendance, although this was scaled back by the afternoon. Crews from Melksham and then Stratton provided a watching brief overnight, and a crew from Bradford on Avon and a water carrier from Pewsey were on scene from early light this morning (28 April) to continue working with site staff to break down the waste stack and smother the affected area with soil to extinguish the fire.
The stop came at 10.45am and all Service personnel have now left the scene.
Station Manager Dave Geddes, the incident commander, said: “Thanks to the hard work of our firefighters and the on-site staff, really good progress was made yesterday in containing this fire, and today we have been able to fully cover the affected area with earth and get it capped off. There may still be some smoke rising from the site as everything settles, but the site team are happy that it is safe.”
He added: “There has been a fire investigation but, due to the size of the affected waste stack, we have been unable to determine an exact cause, beyond being satisfied that it started accidentally.”