Smurfit Kappa has resumed operations at a packaging plant in central England after a large fire ravaged the facility overnight, according to local fire service.
The West Midlands Fire Service said more than 100 firefighters from across the region around Birmingham had advanced to contain the blaze, which was alerted on Sunday evening. He said there were no reports of any casualties.
The fire was declared a major incident after 8,000 tons of compressed cardboard were set on fire. Images and images of drones released by the online fire service showed flaming cardboard bullets over a large area of the site.
Firefighters said investigators will begin work Monday to try to establish how the fire started.
Smurfit Kappa, the largest producer of paper packaging in Europe, did not comment immediately.
Its Birmingham plant is one of only two paper mills operating in the UK and produces between 500 and 700 tonnes of wrapping paper per day, which is then converted into cardboard boxes.
The Irish company has the capacity to produce 8.3 million tonnes of paper and board a year worldwide and handle more than 7 million tonnes of recovered product for recycling, its website says.
Packaging companies have faced an increase in demand for their products over the past two years, first due to the e-commerce boom at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and then by the recovery more which followed the reopening of economies.
Smurfit said earlier this year that its product range remained effectively depleted in almost all 36 countries in which it operates.
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Shares of Smurfit were 2.2% in early trading on Monday. The broader FTSE 100 index fell 0.9%.
The fire department said at the time of the fire it had more than 30 fire engines in use, including two hydraulic overhead platforms, multiple fire trucks, a high-volume water pumping unit and a drone.
He said he was expected to attend at some capacity for at least the next 48 hours.