Fire service investigation says Kronospan fire caused by ‘natural combustion’ – Council publish Q&A document including compensation contact

Wrexham Council have published a question and answer document following the latest Kronospan fire, that also details the results of a fire service investigation.

The fire last month involved raw timber on the log yard, and required a local primary school to keep pupils indoors days later.

The Council have said, “If you live in Chirk or the wider community you will be aware of the fire recently which broke out at the Kronospan factory. Understandably, many residents had concerns during the incident and raised questions with ourselves (Wrexham Council) and Public Health Wales.

“Where possible individual questions were answered during and immediately after the incident.”

In a Q&A document it is stated, “Communicating with residents involved in such an incident is not easy and we will be looking at other avenues of communications in the coming weeks that could be used should there be a similar incident in the future.”

The document also states that “Kronospan issued its first press statement” at 10:25am on the Monday morning, we did not get that nor have they replied to our queries about this fire, or previously regarding other incidents.

The new council update has also been sent to local councillors, the town council, Freedom leisure centre as well as paper copies available at Chirk Library ‘so those not on social media can also get access to the information’.

In the Q&A document the “conclusion” of the Fire Service’s investigation into the cause of the fire is stated as “natural combustion”.

It is stated the Council’s Public Protection officers, who are responsible for regulating Kronospan’s environmental permit, including the wood pile areas at the factory, will investigate the circumstances surrounding the fire, with it noted, “…the investigation will take time to complete and the outcome cannot be speculated on until all the facts are available”.

Several questions that were raised at the Town Council Meeting held on the evening of Thursday, January 16th are included:

– Are Public Health Wales going to monitoring the health of individuals exposed to the smoke from the Kronospan Fire?
– What are the short term health effects of being exposed to the smoke from the Kronospan Fire?
– What are the longer term health effects of being exposed to the smoke from the Kronospan Fire?
– Do the chemicals released from burning wet wood cause cancer?

Specific answers to those questions are not given, however there is details of a response to concerns over air quality monitoring, that some have said was installed too late.

The Q&A states: “Concerns have been expressed by residents that the response from Multi Agency Partners was slow – air quality monitoring took place 2 days after the fire started which missed the worst of the smoke. There’s also questions raised about the availability of such equipment in North Wales.

“Wrexham Council worked as part of a multi agency response to the fire. Agencies included North Wales Fire Service, North Wales Police, Welsh Ambulance Service, BCUHB, Public Health Wales, Natural Resources Wales. Decision in relation to the deployment of the Air Quality Cell was made following discussion with all the above agencies.

“Air quality monitoring took place from Wednesday 15 January by Natural Resources Wales and Wrexham CBC has commenced air quality monitoring in Chirk. Wrexham CBC will commit to liaise with Natural Resources Wales and Kronospan with the aim of installing Air Quality Monitoring equipment in Chirk that provides real time monitoring data that can be viewed directly by the community.”

There is no timescale given on the commitment of installing new monitoring equipment, or the method the community can view the data, and if that will be in realtime online.

The Chirk Environmental Liaison Group which includes representation from Chirk Town Council, Wrexham County Borough Council, Natural Resources Wales and
Kronospan with the purpose to provide ‘an open dialogue’ between the community representatives; the operator and the regulating authorities is set to be ‘reviewed’ due to concerns from the community after the fire.

In a section entitled “Compensation” it states: “Kronospan has written to those in the affected area to ask for their concerns if they have not already done so. We would encourage you to respond to this letter by emailing them on [email protected] or by calling 01691 775497 during office hours.”