Just after midday on Wednesday, West Sussex Fire & Rescue Services (WSFRS) were called to Chartwell Road to attend a fire and arrived in minutes to contain the situation.

A section of Chartwell Road was immediately closed as the Emergency Services extinguished a fire in a Biffa truck, parked in the loading bay outside the Waste Transfer Station on Chartwell Road Bend.

The truck was carrying a secure store of batteries ready for disposal and as the Biffa driver entered the site he smelt burning, immediately moving the vehicle into the loading bay to clear the site. This swift action by the driver isolated the fire from the waste on site, helping to avoid the fire spreading.

This is a warning to us all, to never place old batteries in a waste bin as they can combust at anytime especially in high temperatures and when this happens waste surrounding the batteries fuels the fire. Biffa trucks only carry batteries in secure battery bins, isolated from other material to prevent fires from spreading, therefore providing the essential time needed for WSFRS to extinguish the fire and cool the battery store fully.

Back in August last year, a fire broke out in a waste facility in Climping, near Littlehampton closing the A259 and burnt for three days. For further details of this fire please click here

LBP would firstly like to thank WSFRS for saving the park for the second time in less than 5 weeks, after expertly extinguishing the motorhome fire in Elm Grove in June. LBP would also like to thank Bidfood, Crawley Coaches and Scout Store for all jumping into action to help LBP safely redirect traffic the wrong way around the one-way system during the closure, to help clear the long line of waiting vehicles. And let’s not forget to thank all the drivers who waited patiently whilst LBP helped HGVs to turn and then redirect vehicles to continue on their journey.

Chartwell Road was reopened as quickly as possible and returned to normal flow by 1:40pm.

LBP can assure all vehicles that helped by travelling the wrong way around the one-way system during the closure, that they will not receive a penalty notice. LBP has everything crossed that this is the last time that we will need vehicles to travel the wrong way around the one-way system, especially as a few visiting HGV drivers could have shown more caution whilst driving the wrong way.

Thank you to everyone for your support during this incident and please now adhere to the one-way system again fully to help keep drivers, cyclists and pedestrians safe.