Fire crews from three counties tackle blaze at Banbury's coffee factory

Crews from Banbury, Kidlington, Buckingham and Fenny Compton and an aerial platform from Oxford were mobilised to a fire at Banbury's Jacobs Douwe Egberts coffee factory yesterday, Saturday, afternoon.
Fire crews were called just before 2pm on SaturdayFire crews were called just before 2pm on Saturday
Fire crews were called just before 2pm on Saturday

They were faced with a developing fire in a remote, elevated gantry, in an external area of the factory. The fire was near a high voltage power cable, meaning that power to the plant had to be isolated before firefighting could commence.

Firefighters initially used special equipment to fight the fire from a distance, before moving closer to fight the blaze with hoses, once the power was isolated.

The high reach, aerial appliance was then used to check for hotspots and fire spread.

Crews in breathing apparatus stopped the fire spreading into dry, waste material, while others checked for fire spread in the immediate area.

Station Manager Clarke, said: “Crews from three counties and staff on site worked hard in challenging conditions to contain this incident.

“Ambient temperatures of around 28C meant it was necessary to maintain a large presence of personnel, to ensure that we had enough resilience to bring the incident to a successful conclusion.”

With the fire out, further investigations were then started by site specialists.