FIREFIGHTERS concerned at the length of time a major scrap fire has been burning are hoping to have it extinguished over the weekend - three weeks after it broke out.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service were called to the former Eldon Brickworks site in Bishop Auckland, where approximately 4,000 tonnes of waste was on fire on Monday August 31.

Group Manager Colin Davis said: "We have listened to the local residents in and around of the site of the fire at Eldon and although we have had some messages of support – we do need to continue to address the concerns of the people living near to the site and those who are continually being affected by the smoke.

"Along with our colleagues at the Environment Agency and Durham County Council we are concerned at the length of time the fire has been going on.

"By now, using the controlled burn strategy that we adopted initially, we would have expected the smoke from the fire to have significantly reduced and as you are aware that is not the case.

"There are currently investigations ongoing into why this is. Following a multi-agency meeting on Thursday, a decision has been made that the fire, which at it’s height contained over 4,000 tons of compacted waste, has reduced in size enough for us to safely extinguish the remaining waste.

"We will be working very closely with our partner agencies to achieve this and it will begin in earnest. Measures will be put in place by our colleagues in the Environment Agency to minimise the risk to the local area and mitigate the pollution and harm to the water course and local environment from the fire water run-off."

This is something we have been trying to avoid from the very start of this incident. We will not be leaving this site until the incident is over and we would like to thank local people for their patience and understanding during this incredibly complex incident, hopefully you will see a substantial improvement in conditions around the site as our crews begin to extinguish the fire.

The fire prompted councillors to call for a full review of waste sites across County Durham, declaring that more needs to be done to ensure potential fires are avoided in the future.

Cllr Garry Huntington, local member for Shildon and Dene Valley Division where Eldon is based, added: “This is the second time we have had an issue like this in the Shildon area, and it does seem as though local residents concerns are not taken seriously enough.

“Residents have been complaining for some time about flies and other concerns regarding the site.

“I echo my colleagues recommendation that a full review is required of these type of sites.

“We also need to be certain that the Environment Agency has the resources it needs to monitor these sites.”

The fire department continue their efforts alongside partners to manage a controlled burn and are mitigating risk to the public and the environment.

Andrew Turner, area environment manager for the Environment Agency in the North-East, said officials had visited the site a number of times over recent months as part of an ongoing investigation into its operation.

In July the EA it issued two regulatory enforcement notices which required the company to remove waste from outside of the building and create fire breaks to the waste inside the building.