Oil goes up in smoke at Rotherham wheelie bin plant

FIREFIGHTERS battled for three hours to put out a blaze in a 100- metre-long oil bath at a Rotherham plastics manufacturer.

Black smoke engulfed MGB Plastics on Mangham Road, Greasbrough, after fire broke out in the bath — used in the plant’s production of wheelie bins — shortly before 10am on Sunday

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said: “There was an awful lot of smoke so it was initially hard for crews to determine the extent of the fire.

“Thankfully, there were no members of staff working at the time so there were no injuries, but the fire could have been serious and threw up a few difficulties.”

The spokesman said that water used to extinguish the blaze caused oil to overflow from the bath, threatening to contaminate water in nearby drains so the drains had to be capped while the operation was under way.

The spokesman added: “The operation was complete by around 1pm and the Environment Agency were called in to assess the scene after crews departed.”

Nobody was hurt in the incident.