A London Fire Brigade engine (kitmasterbloke, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
Firefighters were called to a major industrial blaze in Dagenham last night after a tyre unit caught fire, sending heavy smoke across the area and prompting warnings for nearby residents to keep their doors and windows shut.
London Fire Brigade crews were sent to Kemp Road at around 9.57pm on Wednesday after reports of the fire. According to the brigade, a “significant” area of the unit was damaged in the blaze.
People living near the area were advised to keep doors and windows closed because of the heavy smoke drifting from the scene. The flames were brought under control by 11.33pm, but firefighters remained on site for several hours into the early morning to continue dampening down the area and prevent the fire reigniting.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Why tyre fires are taken so seriously
Burning tyres produce thick, toxic smoke laden with particulates and chemicals, which is why the brigade issued the windows-shut warning so quickly. Tyre fires are also notoriously difficult to fully extinguish — rubber burns hot and deep, and pockets of fire can smoulder inside stacked tyres long after the visible flames are out. That is why crews stayed for hours after the main fire was under control, soaking the site and turning over debris to make sure nothing could flare back up.
Industrial estates in the Dagenham and Creekmouth area are home to a mix of waste, recycling and automotive businesses, where stockpiles of tyres and similar materials can make fires particularly challenging to fight.
A dampening-down operation into the morning
Once the main blaze is out, the work for firefighters shifts to what the brigade calls damping down — systematically dousing hotspots, cutting away damaged structures where safe to do so, and using thermal imaging cameras to find hidden pockets of heat inside the debris. Crews will typically only leave when they are satisfied the site cannot reignite, which is why the brigade was still on scene well into the early hours.
The incident comes amid a busy few days for the brigade. Residents in Eltham were evacuated earlier this week after a restaurant fire sent heavy smoke across a street, and London’s transport network has also been under strain — Storm Austen is expected to bring disruption on Friday as the first named storm of the season moves in.
