Plevin recycling firm to pay £230,000 for 13-day blaze

The fire at R Plevin and Sons wood recycling plant in Crow Edge burnt for 13 days in June 2014

A wood recycling firm has been ordered to pay £230,000 following a large fire and other environmental breaches.

R Plevin & Sons near Penistone was fined £200,000 plus £30,000 costs for the 13-day fire in 2014 which cost the fire service about £500,000.

The Environment Agency said water used to extinguish the fire contaminated waterways and closed a sewage plant.

The firm pleaded guilty to several environmental offences in July and was sentenced on Friday.

Plevins shreds up to 150,000 tonnes of waste wood a year to remove contaminants before E.On uses it for biomass fuel at its plant near Sheffield.

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After a fire in April 2014, the Environment Agency told Plevins to plan for managing incidents and reduce its waste-wood stockpiles, as self-combustion is a well-known hazard.

But another fire broke out the following June which lasted 13 days.

The fire at R Plevin and Sons wood recycling plant in Crow Edge burnt for 13 days in June 2014

South Yorkshire Fire Service said the fire was its biggest operation in 11 years, with 45 staff on site at any one time at a cost of over £500,000.

The Environment Agency said the firm had not ensured water used to tackle the blaze was drained into two large off-site lagoons, and instead it ran into the gardens of nearby homes and into the River Don and Sledbrook Dyke.

This meant the nearby Yorkshire Water sewage works had to be temporarily closed.

After the sentencing, at Sheffield Crown Court, Edward Betts of the Environment Agency said Plevin's fire prevention had been "wholly inadequate" and lambasted the company for relying on the fire service and Environment Agency for direction, initiative and resources.

He said the sentence showed "blatant disregard for environmental regulations would not be tolerated."

The firm was also fined £250,000 in 2017 after a worker died falling from a lorry trailer.