A major blaze that ripped through Smurfit Kappa’s Birmingham plant has been brought under control, allowing some operations to resume, it was confirmed on Monday.
The West Midlands Fire Service said it had first been alerted to the blaze at the Nechells plant on Sunday evening. Around 8,000 tonnes of compressed cardboard were on fire when the fire service arrived.
At the height of the blaze, which has been declared a large-scale incident, more than 110 staff and 20 fire engines were in attendance. There are not believed to be any casualties.
West Midlands Fire Service said at 0755 BST on Monday that the fire had been brought to a “safe conclusion”, enabling the company to continue “some of its usual operations”, although eight fire engines and 50 personnel remained on site.
Dublin-based Smurfit, which is listed in London, has yet to issue a statement about the fire and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The firm is Europe’s biggest paper packaging producer. The Nechells plant is one of its two UK mills, and is understood to produce between 500 and 700 tonnes of paper packaging every day which is then used in cardboard boxes.
Fire investigators will now look to establish how the fire started.
As at noon BST, shares in Smurfit were down 2% at 2,893.0p.
