Teams of up to 40 firefighters fight compost blaze

Up to 40 firefighters at a time have been tackling a fire which has been burning for five days on a compost site.

People living near the huge compost tip at Higher Kergilliack Farm near Falmouth in Cornwall, are being advised to keep doors and windows shut.

The tip has been smouldering since Monday, as firefighters work to try and put the seat of the fire out, which is deep inside the compost.

The Environment Agency said it had told the site to stop accepting waste because of the fire.

Crews have been pulling apart the heap of smouldering waste and damping each section down.

Firefighters said they were trying to "scrub" the smoke by spraying it with a fine water spray.

Officers said they had been taking water in trucks from a nearby reservoir and will now me moving to a system using a large diameter hose and pump.

The hose would be crossing the Falmouth to Mawnan road with ramps and traffic management in place.

More machinery was being brought in to move the vegetation.

Martin Addinall, Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service station manager at Falmouth, who is in charge of the incident said: "If we put water straight onto the fire the water just runs off.

"So we are taking pieces of the fire and damping it down."

Local councillor David Saunby said it had been a difficult week for the site owner, who he knows.

"He is very very upset over this," he said.

"He set up this business really to help the local people with their cuttings and use the compost on the land.

"He is devastated and I hope the Environment Agency and fire service look sympathetically on his licence.

"A lot of businesses will suffer if he doesn't keep his licence."

The owner was unavailable for comment.

Local tree surgeon Tom Wharton frequently uses the site to dump small loads of green waste acquired during the course of his work.

He said: "I don't know what I'm going to do.

"I have all these jobs lined up that are reliant on this site."

Another site at Longdowns in Penryn is "not really viable", he added, as it is "more for commercial stuff".

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