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Fire at P2P Mailing warehouse

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Packaging

A blaze at Basildon-based e-commerce fulfilment firm P2P Mailing’s warehouse has burned it to the ground, despite more than 100 firefighters tackling the fire at its height.

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) said in the early hours of Sunday morning (20 August) that 15 fire engines and a number of specialist appliances had been dispatched to the scene in Festival Way, Basildon. The 5,000sqm warehouse was said to be completely alight and there were also a number of lorries involved with the fire.

Around 100 firefighters worked to bring the fire under control in the early hours of Sunday morning and the officer in charge Neil Fenwick reported good progress, stating that the fire was under control and number of engines reduced at around 5am.

Fenwick said: "When we first arrived, firefighters immediately requested extra fire engines to help deal with this rapidly growing fire. The warehouse, which we believe is used for packaging and distribution, contained a large amount of stock and the fire took hold very quickly.

"Firefighters have done an absolutely brilliant job here this morning. They spotted the fire had started to spread to the large warehouse next door and managed to extinguish it very quickly and stopped it spreading. Fire crews had the fire surrounded and under control very quickly. It is thanks to their hard work that the fire has been contained to the one warehouse".

P2P Mailing issued a statement confirming that its Basildon facility was subject to a fire during the early hours of Sunday 20th August 2017.  

The statement said: "Fortunately, no employees or members of the public were hurt. We are working with the relevant authorities to determine the cause of the fire and to ensure minimal disruption to the local area. Our thanks are extended to the emergency services that attended the incident for the extremely efficient and effective manner in which the incident was brought under control.

"Our comprehensive short-term contingency plans are now in action to enable us to return to a business as usual status with as minimal disruption as possible to staff and customers." 

Firefighters worked all of yesterday with contractor Extreme Rescue to use specialist equipment and mechanical diggers to help turn over the collapsed roof and smouldering materials to expose pockets of fire so they could be extinguished fully. 

At 7.30am today, ECFRS said that two fire engines had remained on site overnight and work would commence to find the remaining hotspots, which have still not been fully extinguished. ECFRS’ Twitter feed shows that this still remains the case.

E-commerce specialist P2P Mailing was formed in 2009 as a joint venture between a group of former Dscimm directors and CYC Logistics and Distribution. Its website says it “help retailers sell more internationally by removing cross-border boundaries”.


Fire - Basildon Warehouse - 20 08 2017

Packaging
Industry/companies/suppliers Packaging fire Ecommerce