Caught on camera: Moment Chinese lantern drifts towards plastics factory minutes before it sparked a huge blaze at recycling plant
- - CCTV shows object, believed to be a paper lantern, floating into plant
- - Blaze at Jayplas recycling facility caused £6million worth of damage
- - Fire ripped through 100,000 plastic bales which were awaiting recycling,
- sending a column of smoke 6,000ft into the sky
- - Blaze has sparked calls for Chinese lanterns to be banned
By ANNA EDWARDS
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This is the dramatic footage showing the moment a Chinese lantern landed in a recycling plant, sparking a blaze which caused £6 million of damage.
West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service have released CCTV video clips showing a small flaming object which investigators say is a paper lantern floating into the Jayplas recycling facility on an industrial estate in Smethwick, near Birmingham.
The resulting fire ripped through 100,000 plastic bales which were awaiting recycling, sending a column of smoke 6,000ft into the sky.
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CCTV stills capture the moment a Chinese lantern lands inside the recycling factory in Smethwick
Labour West Bromwich MP Tom Watson said the lanterns were 'just not safe', and called for a ban of them
West Midlands Fire Service said it had more than 35 appliances at the scene of the blaze
The region's chief fire officer Vijith Randeniya said the blaze, which started on Sunday, at one point stretched resources to such an extent there was a single fire engine on standby to cover any other incidents across the West Midlands, with more than 200 firefighters called in to tackle the flames at the plant.
Mr Randeniya said he was satisfied after preliminary investigations that the cause of the fire was the lantern caught on the site's own CCTV cameras.
The blaze sparked calls for Chinese lanterns to be banned, with senior Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron saying they were 'immensely dangerous'.
The MP, who has been campaigning for some time against their use because of farmers' concerns in his Cumbrian constituency about the impact on crops and livestock, said it had taken a major incident in an urban area to bring home the dangers of the lanterns.
Aerial photo of the fire at the 13-acre Jayplas recycling site, which suffered the biggest fire that the West Midlands fire service has ever tackled
Preliminary investigations blame that the cause of the fire on the lantern caught on the site's own CCTV cameras
The blaze sparked calls for Chinese lanterns to be banned, with MPs branding them as 'immensely dangerous'
He added it was 'extremely lucky' that no one was killed.
Yesterday, Labour West Bromwich MP Tom Watson said the lanterns were 'just not safe', and also called for a ban.
Mr Randeniya said the Chief Fire Officers' Association (CFOA) - of which he is president - previously called for a review of the use of the lanterns and said it was time that 'sensible people have a sensible discussion' about the issue.
'We don't want to be party poopers and we know they are used in a lot of celebrations,' he said.
He added: 'We have a situation where a fire has started here, £6 million worth of loss, started by one of these lanterns and that was eminently preventable.'
The CFOA said it wanted an 'urgent review' of the law over the use of paper lanterns, while farming, agricultural and maritime groups called for measures to curb their use.
Farmers with livestock have complained that spent lanterns often land in fields where their wires can injure animals, while coastguards have reported incidents when they have been needlessly called out on false alarms when the lanterns have been mistaken for ship distress flares.
The Smethwick fire, in which 11 firefighters suffered minor injuries, continues to burn today with the fire service estimating crews could be at the site until at least tomorrow.
Mr Farron, who is MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale and Lib Dem party president, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'It is laudable for governments to take their time and be cautious about banning things but the evidence now very strongly points towards that ban.
'This could be repeated again and it could have a loss of life attached to it which would be an absolutely appalling tragedy.
'I think all of us would feel utterly, utterly appalling if we had failed to take action when we had the chance.'
Paper lanterns have been blamed for causing a myriad of problems. Farmers with livestock complain lanterns often land in fields where their wires can injure animals, while coastguards say they have been needlessly called out when the lanterns have been mistaken for ship distress flares
Tthe Chief Fire Officers' Association (CFOA) has called for a review of the use of the lanterns and said it was time that 'sensible people have a sensible discussion' about the issue
The blaze, which started on Sunday, demanded more than 200 firefighters to tackle the flames
He went on: 'They are spectacular things so I am loath to ban them or to seek to ban them. But they are immensely dangerous.
'The Spanish, who are a pretty fun-loving group, have banned them in recent years as well because of the impact on livestock, on crops and indeed property and potentially the threat to life.'
He added: 'The clamour for action to be taken has come originally from the farming community. It has taken an incident like this in an urban environment to really bring this to the headlines.
'I don't think governments should be knee-jerk in outlawing things but, if you look back, I have been doing this for some time alongside others, like the NFU.
'I think the majority of MPs have perhaps only become aware of this recently because the majority of MPs don't represent rural constituencies where this is deemed to be a bigger threat.'
Downing Street played down calls for a ban.
'The actual number of fires caused by Chinese lanterns is very small,' a No 10 spokesman said.
'It is important that we always ensure that there is a proportionate response to any event and we always look at safety matters and make sure they are kept at the top of our concerns.'
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