Firefighters are battling a blaze at Europe’s largest biomass power station.
Over 100 firefighters are battling a blaze at Tilbury power station – the biggest biomass power station in Europe. It’s believed the fire broke out early this morning.
The fire is thought to have started in a fuel storage area. It’s understood that this area contains 4,000 tonnes of crushed wood pellets. The owner of the plant RWE npower said “A fire broke out at 07:45 GMT in a fuel storage area at the station. All our employees have been accounted for”.
Tilbury power Station is located in Essex next to the River Thames. Firefighters from Essex County Fire & Rescue Service are battling the blaze. The chief fire officer, David Johnson said “The fire is in the main part of the power station where there are numerous storage cells holding biofuels, which are compressed and crushed wood fibres. Two of those, at least, are very well on fire – that’s about 4,000 tonnes of fuel. The difficulty we have at the moment is access because the fire is very high up in this structure”.
Local residents have been told there’s no danger from the smoke but have been advised to close their windows.
Tilbury was initially built to burn coal but has recently been granted permission to burn biomass fuel and wood materials as reported by Utility Exchange last year. There are concerns that the blaze has caused some structural damage.
