A week on the Bradford Tyre Fire still smoulders – questions are being asked about urban storage
Bradford Tyre Fire Update
Tyre fires come and they go. Normally they are consigned to history a week or two after the flames are out – the clear up operation never attracts anywhere as much interest in the news.
However, the impact of the Bradford fire, on a site not too far from the city centre caused huge disruption to traffic, to railway scheduling and with up to 20 schools having to be closed, not to mention the costs to businesses and harm to homeowners.
The Environment Agency is investigating the site – which they had been alerted to earlier in the year. Two arrests have been made in connection to the site.
However, as the fire continues to burn after almost a full week, there have been calls for action.
Bradford Trident, a community organisation, which works with residents and businesses in the Little Horton area of Bradford, said it was “shocked” by the ongoing fire.
A spokesman said; “The ongoing fire on Upper Castle Street has come as a shock to Bradford Trident.
“We are firm believers that there should be no tyre stores in urban areas for this exact reason.
“We have managed to keep both our Park Lane Centre and Mayfield Centre open and are on stand-by to provide shelter should a housing evacuation be required, though as time passes this looks less likely.”
Taj Salam, chairman of Trustees at Bradford Trident, said: “Going forward we need to ensure an incident like this does not happen again.
“We will be working closely with the local authorities to put measures in place to keep our community safe.”
Some of the schools affected are a mile or more away from the fire, which started in the early hours of Monday, November 16.
Several businesses near the fire were forced to close due to being inside the police cordon. One business owner put his losses at £10,000.
Peter Taylor at the Tyre Recovery Association was sanguine about the fire, saying that it was yet another preventable incident. “There are rules and regulations for tyre storage and recycling, but rules need enforcing. The EA do a lot of work to bring people up to standard, but the issue is still that retailers move on end of life tyres without a duty of care being exercised. As well as enforcement at these illegal sites, we need to see some retailers being fined for their part in this trade,” said Taylor.
