Emergency crews have successfully put out a 100-tonne electrical goods fire on Hitchin’s industrial estate.
Six fire crews from Hitchin, Baldock & Letchworth, Stevenage and St Albans stations rushed to the scrapyard off Cadwell Lane after getting the call at 9.40am to reports of a fire of electrical goods in the open – with the aerial ladder platform despatched from Stevenage. Police and paramedics were also there.
A fire service spokesman said at 2.35pm: “We are now scaling down our operations, but crews will remain on-site for a number of hours.
“Please continue to avoid the area, but there is now no need for people living nearby to stay indoors.”
Police and the ambulance service have told the Comet nobody has been injured. Officers who had closed Cadwell Lane at its junctions with Woolgrove Road and Wallace Way reopened the road at 2.10pm.
The black smoke could be seen from as far off as Letchworth and Stevenage, with one person even telling the Comet he had seen it from Royston. Emergency personnel urged people across the Hitchin, Letchworth and Stevenage areas to close all doors and windows.
Some Hitchin schools and nurseries went into lockdown amid the billowing smoke, following advice from the emergency services.
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