Bit of random breaking news! Well, since it’s happening right now and all.
Above is the view from my window of the Littleport tyre yard fire.
It’s ma-hoo-sive, you can see that smoke from miles away.
[update] A roving reporter on the ground has sent this in:
[update 2] Or as the BBC News are calling it: “Littleportmore”!
[update 3] Still burning on the 25th August 2009:
I could see it from St Ives. I thought Ely Cathedral was on fire when I was looking out over the fields on the way home.
We Can see if from Kings Lynn too….
Alais I couldn’t see it in Yorkshire!!
The beauty of living somewhere as flat as the Fens is that when something like this happens we can all see it for miles and miles around!
I can see it too as i am only in soham.
The ely standards writing does make me laugh though..
“The fire is expected to continue to burn for several days”
Well put more water on it then, don’t just leave it burning lol.
I could see it from a bridge at milton cambridge and it was like I was right next to it!
Got home at 21.30 hrs, Sat 21st Aug and it’s still burning.
wrong date! sat/22/aug
Still burning this morning, road still closed.
Dan you cannot put tyre fires out with water, you just have to let them burnout.
It was only a little fire in the middle of a big pile of tyres when I went past on Friday at 3:15pm. At 3:15pm on Saturday it was a BIG fire in the middle of a big pile of tyres. Looking at it from my bedroom window now at 1am on Wednesday morning it’s still a pretty impressive fire in the middle of what now is a very small pile of tyres (not counting the ones at the back that have survived!) It’s been amazing to watch it and to see the way the smoke has lain in a layer across the fields at the back of our place, off towards the wild fowl trust. I’m gonna miss getting up and looking out to see what it’s up to every morning. I bet Kev and his mates who work across the road ain’t gonna miss it though! Some fire and it’s not even November! Wow!
I can see the glow from the fire from my window too right now (1:30am!). Sadly, my camera isn’t quite good enough to get a picture of it. If you get any artistic photo opportunities though, feel free to email any pictures to me and I’ll stick it on the post above! Sounds like you’re much closer than I am. :-)
I live RIGHT next to this- its a big JOKE- THEY CAN PUT THIS OUT- They could use the same foam that is used on Airplane crashes etc but they wont because it costs allot of money and nobody lives in Littleport that is worth saving !!I’m loving the “Oxford Scientists came up and have confirmed it’s not lethal!” YES- I know I’m not going to instantly die when outside and have this black smoke falling all over my garden (and fields etc that have food that will get sold to tescos- ((nice)) but it is a hazzard- read the health protection agency website or COME and live near to it and tell me how you feel!! ! I am sickened- the amount of money that is taken from me and given to other countries and scum could/should have been used to sort this out-
:)
Now I’m back in sunny Cambridgeshire I too can see the smoke filling the clouds in the distance!! I must admit I do feel for the lady above, Katie, as I know I wouldn’t like to be that close to it all….
A friend of mine is a firefighter & did attend the blaze on the Friday & he said to me then, that the best thing they can do is let it burn out!! However, I’m sure if there was a risk of explosion etc they would have used the foam….
One thing for sure is that it seems to be helping the hits to your website Chris…perhaps you should get some more pictures up!!?? ;-)
Seems quite popular doesn’t it! Well if anyone has taken any pictures I’ll happily stick up in a little gallery or something (I’d have to leave any accompanying background music up to the reader though).
Anyway. This probably isn’t very reassuring to most people here, but this is an interesting little quote from this page:
“Burning tyres can have a serious environmental impact. Whilst tyre fires are uncommon, they produce vast quantities of harmful emissions that will pollute the atmosphere and water courses through run-off. The high energy content of tyres means they can burn for long periods. For example in Wales, a tyre fire started in 1989 in a covered tip containing 10 million tyres was still burning nine years later.”
But this quote (from what looks to be a Home Office commissioned report [rich text file]) is slightly more worrying:
“The smoke from tyre fires is toxic. The smoke from a burning fire would be rapidly dangerous to life. Light smoke from the event, possibly during damping down, could also be harmful over longer periods.”
I wonder who this “Oxford scientist” was?!
Dr Michelin Goodyear
It was still on fire (still smoke anyway) this morning 10 days after it began!!!
Tomorrow will mark the 5th week of the fire and all the conflicting reports that along with it. HSE Agency has said there is no problem with the smoke, desoite the fact that residents are to be relocated to avoid contact with the toxins. A letter released by the HPA on the 7th September was later disregarded by another letter released by the same agency. The agency today have not commented on the possible health risks of the heavy metals, dioxins and other associated carcinogens related to the uncontrolled burning. Several of the pollutants have in recent years been the subject of Environmental Legislation. The authorities have made claims that the smoke is non-toxic, despite a statement in a letter from the HPA dated the 10th September saying that the contents of the smoke cannot be analysed. Interesting. Will there be any comeback for those subjected to these unidentified toxins for the last 5 weeks? I doubt it. If it can’t be identified it couldn’t have been the cause!www.notoxicburning.org/health.html
I live locally. I did not believe reports that the smoke was safe, and checked on the internet to see that in fact this is not the case. Depending on the direction the wind is blowing, I can smell the disgusting smoke in my house. I have had an almost continuous headache since the fire has been buring, and was particularly unwell last week. I know this is only annecdotal, but I feel that letting the thing burn for so long shows scant regard for those who live in and around Littleport.
All the authorities engage in a steadfast conspiracy of silence when asked to make the public the levels of emissions. When questioned about them they claim that they could be open to misinterpretation which is why they don’t publish them. Yet emission levels from roadside monitors around the country are freely available on a daily or hourly basis: see http://www.airquality.co.uk Given that they are obliged to release the data under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004 to anyone who asks for it, it makes their position over refusal to publish the data appear all the more ridiculous. Why not publish them and give their ‘interpretation’ as well?
I have obtained (through an EIR request) from the Environmental Health Department the emissions levels from the monitor at the Murfitt Industries site. They have been monitoring the sulphur dioxide levels and the levels of PM10s (particulate matter that has a diameter of 10 microns or less) which gets deep into the lungs and body of anyone who breathes it in.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/pollution/645.aspx
Now it’s fair to say that you would have to be at the monitor itself to be subjected to these levels. But for anyone working within a 500 metre radius and when the wind is blowing in your direction, I leave it up to your imagination to guess how high the level of exposure is to this group of people.
On the day (7/09/09) that the Health Protection Agency (HPA) posted its letter strongly advising that businesses within 500 metres of the site should close, readings of sulphur dioxide levels from the monitor at the site were between 600 and 800 microgrammes per cubic metre (ug / m3). PM10 levels were at 600-700 (ug / m3). Sulphur dioxide levels have been as high as 1351 ug / m3 (on 8.9.09) and PM10s have been as high as 1000 ug / m3 (on 04.9.09)
By Friday (10/09/09) when the HPA sent out its letter saying that businesses did not have to close, the wind changed direction and was blowing away from the monitor. The levels fell accordingly. Sulphur dioxide emissions fell to between 5-20 ug / m3 and PM10s fell to 20-50 ug / m3. But these readings only applied if you were not downwind of the smoke.
Latterly the emission levels have risen again. On 22/9/09 sulphur dioxide levels were up to 400-500 ug / m3 and PM10s were 400-600 ug / m3.
What do these levels mean? The Department of Health’s policy is that advice on the effects of sulphur dioxide levels should be issued when average hourly concentrations of sulphur dioxide reach above 357 ug / m3and warnings should be issued when they exceed 1144 ug / m3.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4102961
For PM10s the standard on air quality that should be achieved is 64 ug / m3 or less, when expressed as a 24 hour mean, not to be exceeded more than 35 times a year. The levels being recorded at roadside sites in London are currently at about 30-40 ug / m3 to put it into context. Anything over 130 ug / m3 for PM10s is considered to be “very high level of air pollution”. PM10 levels are therefore at least 3-4 times the “very high level of air pollution” considered by the standard.
It’s clear that both sulphur dioxide and PM10 levels are at an alarming level when set against the context of the UK standard on air quality. It’s fairly self-evident that a reading of 400-700 ug / m3 is not exactly going to be great for anyone’s lungs (even bearing in mind a dilution effect according the distance you are from the site). Have the authorities been as vigorous as they should be at keeping people away from these extraordinarily high levels of pm10s which must be carrying carcinogens deep into the lungs of anyone who breathes it in? All we can say is that they’ve kept the data about as close to their chests as the PM10s that people are breathing in.
Great post AB, I live in Shropshire and we have had the same problem here with a tyre fire in Wem comprising 2,000 tonnes of tyres which was immediately pronounced as non toxic by the fire service even though as far as I can tell so far through FOI requests no actual readings had been taken at that point. I have discovered that there have been 12 tyre fires in the UK this year and surprise, surprise, non have managed to emit any toxic smoke. The HPA are currently refusing to supply me with ANY data they have taken and are even refusing to divulge the location of Environmental Agency air quality monitoring points. The BBC seem to report right at the start of these fires that they are non toxic but doesn’t follow up when people start complaing about feeling unwell. I was doing some research tonight about these tyre fires wondering why I seemed to be the only person in Shropshire who wants to challenge these findings when I came across all these encouraging post on this blog. Now I know that other people have seen through this charade as well. It seems to me that the way forward may be to accumulate as much data as possible on all these fires including comments about adverse affects from people in the surrounding areas possibly by setting up a website where people can send the information in. Once this is available, we could then decide how to challenge these findings. Is there anyone interested in starting this up?
Nice post AB! here we are now in week 6 and people at work are starting to feel the effects. People are going home early with nausea, headaches etc. People are also starting to phone in sick as a result. I personally have had a headache all day for the past couple of weeks. Nice! Here’s an interesting piece for you all. It has been suggested to me that the people working on the site have been told that in the event of the press or TV turning up they are to remove their BA Equipment and not to be photographed or filmed wearing it. Wonder why? There is still a clear lack of information, and if you’ll pardon the pun, it stinks. Someone somewhere knows something. So step into the limelight and tell us all. Dr King has been slapped on the wrists for her letter of the 7th September where she advised businesses within 500 metres to consider closing for the benefit of their staff’s health. Not happening though is it? Why are the press not covering this, or local TV? Farmers have been told not to use water from the local irrigation channels because of contamination. Not the risk, but actual contamination. Apparently, the water table to a radius of 1.5 km has been contaminated. That piece of news is direct from a meeting held last week. Come on local press….forget the cat stuck in the tree news piece and cover something that will have a long term impact on this area. Are there no investigative journalists left or do we the public have to do all the digging? Ely papers get on the case now! Best I go now, the Stasi will be on me soon. Who’s that at the door?…..