Major fire at former Supaskips site in Lancaster finally extinguished after three weeks

Firefighters have been at the site of the fire for over three weeks trying to put it out.

A spokesman for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said: The fire appears to be extinguished and there is no more smoke being given off from the site.

“Regular monitoring will continue but fire crews are now scaling back their attendance at the incident ground.

“We'd like to say a huge thank you to the people of Lancaster.

"We really appreciated your patience and support during this incident, despite the inconvenience caused by the smoke and road closures.”

“Thank you also to colleagues at the many partner agencies including Lancaster City Council, Lancashire Police, Lancashire County Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency, United Utilities and others.”

The fire at the former A1 Supa Skips site on Port Royal Avenue broke out on Sunday morning, December 3.

Since then, crews have been on site trying to extinguish the fire, which involved pockets of fire continuing to smoulder deep within large piles of commercial waste.

Buildings on the site were also structurally unsafe and had to be demolished, paid for by Lancaster City Council, to help crews access the fire, which involved 13,000 tonnes of commercial waste.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue said the main building at the site was "structurally unsafe posing a risk to emergency response teams".

They said they were "working closely with the EA (Environment Agency) to minimise any potential environmental consequences stemming from the water run-off".

The air quality was consistently being measured by Lancaster City Council.

People in the local area were advised to keep out of the smoke plume and keep windows and doors shut if they could see or smell smoke.

People experiencing health issues from the smoke and fumes from the fire at the former SupaSkips site on Port Royal Avenue in Lancaster were being asked to call NHS 111 or their GP.

Europa Way was closed to traffic and the public were being asked to keep away from the site.

Lancaster City Council revealed they were pledging a further £650,000 from council reserves to help speed up the work needed to resolve the ongoing fire, in addition to £262,000 of funds already agreed.

A major incident was declared earlier this year following other fires at the site, and a multi-agency task force the Lancashire Resilience Forum, including the Environment Agency,

Lancashire County Council, Lancaster City Council, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and Lancashire Police, was set up.

MP Cat Smith asked the government to step in and provide support after the major fire at the former Supaskips site in Lancaster.

Ms Smith had been among those calling for action at the former skip hire site, due to concerns over the state of the building, premises and waste, for several months.

A1 Supa Skips Ltd went into administration in April 2022 and in November 2022, the Environment Agency announced they had removed their site permit.

On December 6, a 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of arson at the site, and bailed.