It seems to be the time of year to have a clear out. Its bank holiday weekend and a local business have decided to burn everything and anything they don’t want turning the sky in to a mass of black smoke which smells acrid. Local council offices are shut and the local fire station answer phone message is stating no one available until Tuesday. I live in a mixed industrial residential area. I recognise one of the men and know him to be unapproachable. Suggestions on what to do how to handle please…

The Old Bill?

If its causing a nuisance call police. Or call fire service who will ( well I would) put it out.

he local fire station answer phone message is stating no one available until Tuesday.

😯

Fire service is the answer, something about smoke being a nuisance covers it.

I would video it with the date and time .I expect this breaches the clean air act.I know it doesnt stop it happening but will be evidence when you go to the council on Tuesday

Our station number isn’t listed, if it was we’d get weirdos calling at all hrs saying some twit was burning rubbish next door. If its a genuine emergency 999

Really don’t want to call 999. Photo’s taken will contact council and business involved on Tuesday. Think a generic letter to all local businesses is needed; once one starts it seems to give the others ideas. Cheers guys needed to let off some steam before I committed myself to time behind bars.

Made the call yet?

I wouldn’t worry about calling 999 just say you think the building is on fire

As above if a business is burning waste illegally then the Local authority should be informed, if they do jack (and depending on where you are) the county council may be interested. If your in Buckinghamshire we would prosecute the business owner if sufficient evidence was present and the waste being burnt was deemed to be hazardous (i.e. lots of black smoke from plastics etc)

Failing all that (and depending on the scale) the environment agency would also be worth a punt if its a regular occurance.

Sorry also some local authorities have an emergency out of hours number and officers on standby for these sorts of things trying call environmental health as they may give it on the answer phone message.

Find the non-emergency number for your local police station and call them. That way they can decide whether a) it’s a priority for them, and b) whether anyone should get the fire brigade to turn up with some water

How can the local police make the decision if the fire brigade are needed? The op is looking at the scene. He should make a decision and not pass the buck to someone in a call centre who can’t see it.

Spoken to out of hours county council service: environmental depot forwarding calls to out of hours service!?! Advice phone back on Tuesday in the mean time log evidence.

Give up 101 Called…

If its a business causing the problem then try the Environment Agency hotline on 0800 807060

How can the local police make the decision if the fire brigade are needed? The op is looking at the scene. He should make a decision and not pass the buck to someone in a call centre who can’t see it.

By listening to the op when he calls them, seeing as hes already tried to contact the fire brigade without much luck. My guess is that they have means to contact the fire brigade. I’d also suggest that the police are the usual organisation to contact if you witness activity you believe may be illegal.

Have you tried ringing or dropping in to the folk burning stuff and asking them to stop?

I am an environment officer in the EA. You need to call our hotline number as above ASAP. There will be someone on standby to come and take action if required.

Don’t wait to call as we have to get there as they are actually burning something, not 2 hours later.

Also call fire brigade if it looks large or out of control. Police aren’t really the people to call unless its arson!

Most of you are wrong – the EA deal with waste issues and 99% of the time burning trade waste is illegal. It’s environmental law which the police often aren’t 100% aware of so EA is best to start off with. We work with the police often but generally we don’t need them there as EA officers are fully warranted.

?The fire brigade are contactable on 999. If the fire needs putting out then call them. Don’t call another agency and get them to make the call for you.

This must be a good fire if it is still going looking at the length of the thread.What business is it .Do you think they are burning toxic stuff ?

Fire out, burnt mattress springs dragged off to the side of the original bonfire and burnt out metal drum (may be oil) too. No idea if police have been but seems to have been dealt with. No way I’m going to approach this joker if he has so little regard for the law; i have family to consider. I have phoned the business involved several times to no avail. As always Thanks for advice…

The Business is an ex plant hire co that was housed in a listed mill which is now disused altogether. The mill is having roofing work done. It’s the roofers who are bringing waste to the site to burn.

So your sure its not burning of certain types of rotten wood that must be burnt on site and not transported anywhere, the kind of rotten wood you might find in an old mill ?

trail_rat – Member
So your sure its not burning of certain types of rotten wood that must be burnt on site and not transported anywhere, the kind of rotten wood you might find in an old mill ?

Funny wood if it contains mattress springs and an oil barrel

Next time say you saw them feeding a rolled up carpet that had feet sticking out into the fire. That should get the police AND fire brigade down there.

Matress springs no idea – oil barrel – ive burnt plenty of stuff in oil barrels over the years. Empty and clean they are the perfect vessel for containing fire , but i wont let that stop him from believing they were burning waste engine oil that will kill him and a babys hedgehogs face.

If the op had called 999 the fire service would’ve attended. If I rolled up I’d ask for police to attend due to illegal burning of waste material.

It really should be a simple thing to do, why do some people make things difficult?

Because, as above, the investigation and prosecution of waste offences is led by the EA and nothing to do with the police. (Who are quite overstretched trying to deal with their own responsibilities). Putting out fires is the job of the fire brigade. Mrs May has been very clear that she wants the police to concentrate on their job and stop being dragged into non-police matters.

Mattress springs are quite good quality steel,so burning the mattress exposed the steel and is easily sold, local hospital i worked at, paid a chap to take old sprung matresses away, he dumped them at the weekend behind the hospital on waste land set them on fire and burnt them out, but the smoke also set off the fire alarms at the hospital,resulting in partial evacuation, due to number of alarms activated, loads of firemen, and the bloke got arrested.

Also uncontrolled burning is illegal, EA and fire service, but then if the fire service come out there are less engines to deal with real emergencies like your house burning down.

Photos/Video and Environment Agency I would have thought.

Putting out fires is the job of the fire brigade.

And dealing with criminals is the job of the police, who if spoken to on their non-emergency number would be able to advise on the correct course of action. The point being that by calling their non-emergency number, it will be treated as such. Calling 999 diverts a fire engine from what might be a real emergency, as by calling 999, you’ve tacitly stated that it is one. One would assume, that if the police are rather overstretched, they’d be up to speed with who they can palm things off to – the EA it seems in this case. As the OP was asking, it’s pretty clear that they, nor most other people, would know to contact them out of hours.

This being STW, I’m sure you will, but I’m not sure anyone could argue that the police are the people you usually call if you witness what you suspect to be illegal activity.

Putting out fires is the job of the fire brigade service

We provide a service to yous thee tax payer.. If I had a £ for everytime some jumped up ahole screamed at me “I pay my taxes so I pay your wages” I’d have £12 😉 my reply is yes thanks for that and tug at my imaginary hair lock.

Forgot to mention when I spoke to the 101 they asked if the smoke was blowing across any near by highways. Got to say that sort of danger never entered my red mist head at the time…

Zokes, I struggle to understand your point. Why would you call the police for advice on a fire? You may as well run it by the out of hours GP. The fire service call taker will be far better qualified to decide on the fire service response and give advice than a police call taker. In most police forces 999 and 101 go to the same operators. They make a judgement on the required response based on what they are told not what number is used. I am sure the fire service are equally capable of judging an appropriate response. Calling the police seems to be a certain section of society’s default response to all of life’s problems.

Zokes, I struggle to understand your point. Why would you call the police for advice on a fire?

That may well be because you’re clearly not reading what I have written. The OP stated that they suspected the fire was illegal. Who do you call when you see an illegal act? That and the fact that unlike the fire brigade, you can get hold of the police on a non-emergency basis – the OP tried and failed that with the Fire Service.

Manicman – probaby asked if it was going near highways as thats all they care about.

I had the firebrigade arrive at my grandads once- nearest neighbour quarter mile away and i was burning leaves in an oil barrel with the smoke going over the fields which is why i was burning.

“What are you burning ” ” leaves” ” oh right , have a nice day see”

Did you report this to the EA in the end?

He could also be burning stolen cable to extract the copper. Illegal on at least two counts, I’d say.

I thought the specified day for burning dodgy stuff was 5th Nov?

I thought the specified day for burning dodgy stuff was 5th Nov?

That does happen a fair bit, yes. 🙁