Tyre recycler expresses gratitude to emergency services following Croydon fire

A large blaze that broke out in a warehouse at Neolay Ltd’s tyre recycling plant in Croydon on September 22 is said to have badly damaged the building, however no injuries have been reported and the company states it remains “business as usual” for most of its product lines. London Fire Brigade remained at the scene for most of the day after dispatching at least six fire engines, 30 firefighters and an aerial appliance.

According to London Fire Brigade, the roof of the two-storey warehouse, which contained “a number of tyres,” collapsed during the fire. “This was a massive fire which caused a huge amount of black smoke due to the number of tyres that were involved,” commented station manager Julian Spooner on the evening of September 22. “Crews worked throughout the night to prevent the flames from spreading to neighbouring properties, one of which is a restaurant. We’re making steady progress and the fire is reducing in size but the fact that the roof has collapsed has made this a challenging incident. We’re now working hard to put the fire completely out.”

In a press release, Neolay managing director Paul Foster stated “the most important fact is that no-one was injured and we are grateful that our emergency procedures were in place, and more importantly, followed by the staff on site. The emergency services response could not have been better and we are grateful for their ongoing support on site. We are working with all the relevant agencies to establish the cause of the fire and to prevent further disruption to our neighbours.

“We are also fully aware that the local community has experienced a significant amount of inconvenience as a result of this incident,” Foster added. “We would like to express our appreciation to local residents and businesses for their patience and assure them that we intend to do everything we can to minimise the impact on the surroundings during the clean up and any planned reconstruction.”

“We would also like to assure our customers that contingency plans have already been deployed to minimise any disruption to supply, we hope to be back to ‘business as usual’ for 85 to 90 per cent of our products after this weekend, but would appreciate their understanding while we operate from our temporary offices,” added Neolay sales director Eddie Seymour. “We will continue to keep our customers informed of any developments via our website and our social media sites.”

London Fire Brigade is carrying out an investigation to establish the cause of the blaze, however at this stage it has not released any further information.

Neolay Ltd was established in February 2010 and introduced its products to the market after purchasing the Dunweedin rights and trading name. The company specialises in tyre-based recycled products such as rubber bark and rubber chippings for playgrounds and gardens.