Workers are to cap a sewage fire with stones in a bid to stop fumes and ash spreading to nearby homes.

Yorkshire Water has sent more than 1,000 letters to residents in Mirfield after receiving complaints about smells from the fire burning inside sludge lagoons at Bog Green Lane near Cooper Bridge roundabout.

The company was first alerted to the blaze by Kirklees Council two weeks ago after residents rang in to ask what was causing the burning smell.

Fire crew from Mirfield Fire Station were called in nine times to deal with burning grass on top of the lagoons sparked by the smouldering waste.

Yorkshire Water spokesman Richard Sears said the fire could have been started by a discarded cigarette or from the decomposing waste overheating.

He said: "Work has already started to dig a trench around the area to stop it spreading and then the site will be capped to starve it of oxygen.

"We've never had this problem before and we've had to call in a consultant to tell us what to do.

"We've written to people living nearby to assure them the fumes are not toxic."

Leading fireman Neil Dyson, from Mirfield fire station, said the brigade had suggested the lagoons - which look like landfill mounds - were dug out with bulldozers so the seat of the fire could be extinguished.

But Mr Sears said tests had shown only the top two feet of the lagoons were on fire and beneath was liquid sludge which could not carry the weight of heavy machinery.

Kulginder Singh Gossal, of Battyeford Post Office in Stocks Bank Road, Mirfield, said customers had been talking about little else since the fire started.

He said: "It smells like burning rubber and it's worse at night and in the morning. You can see a black cloud over the site in the mornings."

Dorothy Hirst, of Coppin Hall Lane, Mirfield, said: "It smells dreadful and my windows are covered in ash from it.

"We're having to keep our windows shut at night. I just hope they get it sorted out soon."

The lagoons were abandoned seven years ago when a new incinerator opened in Huddersfield.

The fire is similar to a peat fire and attempts to put it out with water have failed.

Mr Dyson said: "If we put water on it, it just evaporates.

"Luckily it doesn't smell like what it once was but it's still unfortunate."

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