Dozens of firefighters at the scene of Northfleet fire

KentOnline / KMTV

Kent firefighters have been working since the early hours of the morning after flames consumed a recycling site in Northfleet.   The fire started just after 2am, with those in the centre of Gravesend being warned to shut their doors and windows to ward off the heavy smoke.   Our reporter Kristin Hawthorne went to the site to get the latest on the operation...

Transcript

00:00Smoke from a large fire at the London Scrap Terminal has been filling the air in Gravesend today.

00:05As thousands of tonnes of metal are being burnt, firefighters on the scene have been making ongoing efforts for hours to put the fire out.

00:13The fire is in a recycling depot which has got scrap metal in there.

00:18It's unknown at this time that the amount of metal that's involved is estimated to be around 5000 tonnes.

00:24The crews have been here on site since 2 o'clock this morning.

00:27We've been working hard throughout the day to get the incident resolved,

00:31but I imagine that we're still going to be here for probably another 48 hours minimum.

00:35With six fire engines and around 35 firefighters on the scene, residents are being told to shut their windows and close their doors.

00:42Yes, so we've got six fire engines, a high volume pump and a turntable ladder on site to help extinguish it.

00:48And we are utilising our drone capabilities as well which gives us an eye in the sky that allows us to see the fire from above

00:55which really does help us to resolve the incident.

00:58The fire robot is not here, but we are using the on site machinery, the grab cranes etc.

01:03They're helping us with our firefighting as well.

01:06The cause of the fire is unknown and nobody was injured, but investigations are ongoing.

01:11While residents are being asked to close their windows and doors,

01:14more information about the hazard can be found on Kent Fire and Rescue's social media.

01:19Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV in Gravesend.

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