A LEADING waste management firm has halted operations at its Bradford depot and re-deployed staff to locations outside the city following a large fire at the weekend.

Associated Waste Management Limited (AWM) suffered extensive levels of damage to its Canal Road premises on Saturday when a blaze broke out in the early hours of the morning.

At its height, the fire was tackled by the crews of 15 fire engines from across the brigade, with 100 per cent of the building involved.

The firm, which converted enough waste into energy to power 20,000 homes last year, has now released a statement about the immediate future, following the damage.

Business Development Director, Tim Shapcott said: “AWM sustained a catastrophic fire at Canal Road Materials Reclamation Facility early on Saturday, August 11, resulting in a total loss of the facilities and site buildings.

“The fire was safely extinguished by Sunday and there were no casualties; independent investigators, along with AWM’s investigation team have now commenced work to try and ascertain the cause.”

He added: “AWM are working with multiple stakeholders to ensure any future disruption is kept to a minimum.

“All staff that work at the site have been re-deployed across other facilities within the company and clients have been provided with alternative sites within the business to utilise.”

The company owns nine other sites, including facilities in Leeds and Halifax, and currently employs 248 full time and part time staff.

Structural engineers from multiple organisations met across the weekend to assess the safety of the building, after it was initially described as being unstable.

Bradford Council said once the building was made safe, a decision to demolish the building would be in the hands of the owners.

Firefighters only left the scene on Monday morning, just over two days after the building set alight at 2:30am on Saturday, with plumes of smoke visible way into dawn that day.

The fire also caused major disruption on the roads and rail.

Valley Road, one of the main routes into Bradford from Baildon and Shipley was closed for all of Saturday and all railway lines were blocked between the Bradford Forster Square and Shipley stations, causing particular issue for people travelling to Bradford City’s first home game of the season.