Smethwick blaze firm chiefs pledge to rebuild

The recycling firm at the centre of one of the West Midlands' biggest ever blazes today vowed to get the business back up and running. It come as calls are growing for Chinese lanterns similar to the one that sparked it to be banned.
Firefighters were today continuing to tackle the fire at the Jayplas recycling plant in Smethwick, as it emerged the cost of damage could run as high as £6 million. Flames had now been contained to 10 per cent of the site after burning for more than 30 hours.
The inferno was sparked after a Chinese lantern blew onto the site on Dartmouth Road, quickly igniting up to 100,000 tons of recycled plastic and paper and sending plumes of acrid black smoke billowing 6,000 ft into the air.
Smoke could be seen as far away as Kettering in Northamptonshire.
More than 200 firefighters were drafted in to tackle the blaze at its height.
In a written statement, Mike Maxwell, operation manager at Jayplas, thanked the emergency services.
He pledged to assist in cleaning up the area, while also apologising to neighbouring businesses and residents effected by the blaze.
He said he hoped to bounce back from the fire, resuming the site operations 'as soon as possible'.
"I would like to thank the emergency services for their speedy response and dealing with this incident in a thoroughly professional manner.
"I'd also like to thank our staff on site for raising the alarm as soon as they were aware of the fire which allowed the fire brigade to act so quickly and reduce the severity of this incident.
"Speaking with the fire investigation officers it looks likely that the fire was caused by a Chinese lantern landing on the site and starting the fire.
"This was a tragic accident over which we had no control."
He added: "We would like to apologise to all of our neighbours for any disruption caused by this incident and hope to see things get back to normal as quickly as possible."
"Jayplas will do everything we can to assist the emergency services and the environment agency to ensure the site and surroundings areas are made safe and cleaned up as quickly as possible with minimum impact to the local environment."
Calls are mounting for Chinese lanterns to be banned in the aftermath of the blaze.
West Midlands Fire Service chief fire officer Vij Randeniya said: "We have a situation where a fire has started here, £6 million worth of loss, started by one of these lanterns and that was eminently preventable."
Today Jayplas' bosses were bringing in two heavy plant machines onto site to assist the remaining 50 firefighters to move the burning waste in a bid to get to the heart of the fire.
And workers from the site were today helping start the massive clean-up operation.
Area Commander Steve Vincent said he hoped the fire would be out by the end of today, but said this would depend on how easily firefighters can access the flames, some of which are within the 10ft high bales of plastic.
Area Commander Simon Shilton said: "We have made significant progress throughout Monday and the night, but there is still a large amount of burning waste on site which we have to tackle. Our tactics are aggressive, we want to strike at the heart of the fire to extinguish it as quickly as possible."
At a multi agency meeting this morning it was agreed to partially open Dartmouth Road to help neighbouring businesses get back to work, however Halfords Lane and Brasshouse Lane remain closed. Galton Valley Primary School remains closed today.