Fire in food processing machine at Banbury business

At around 7.15pm yesterday, Monday, firefighters were called to Newly Wed Foods, in Lombard Way.

Watch manager Simon Piper, of Banbury Fire Station, who was the incident commander, said: “Due to the expert knowledge of the onsite shift engineer and team leader, we were able to quickly access the area of the machine that was affected, enabling us to undertake immediate actions to extinguish the fire, and utilise the air-handling equipment built into the premises to remove the resultant smoke”.

Station manager David Bray, the fire protection and business safety manager for the Cherwell and West Oxfordshire areas, who also attended said: “This incident clearly reinforces the difference it makes in having a well drilled team within your business.

“The night shift at these premises did everything that we would expect of them; when the fire alarm activated the fire marshal identified the area of the premises affected, and located the fire. Establishing the fire was too big for them to attempt to bring under control themselves using the sites fire extinguishers, they called 999 and gave clear and concise information relating to the emergency, and ensured that a full evacuation of the staff had occurred.

“Once the fire had been brought under control by the attending fire crews, it was possible to enact the site’s business continuity and recovery plans, enabling the staff to re-enter the unaffected parts of the building to get other processing machines restarted, that had been emergency stopped as part of their incident response”.

Businesses are invited to attend a fire safety event at Abingdon Fire Station on September 7. Advice on fire safety for businesses can also be found at https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/fire-safety-advice-businesses.