Six fire engines were called to Mid UK Recycling last Tuesday evening shortly before 6pm when a fire started in a paper recycling warehouse on the site off Station Road, Caythorpe.

No-one was hurt and the cause of the blaze was being investigated while the fire took until Thursday to burn out.

Three conveyor belts, a baling machine and a loader were affected by the blaze, which also destroyed a large quantity of paper and plastic.

Mark Ridler of Mid UK Recycling said the fire was noticed by staff just after switching off the conveyor belts at the end of the day.

They tried to fight the fire but quickly called the fire brigade as it began to take hold.

He said the fire was contained to the single storey warehouse accounting for about 15 per cent of their operation and firefighters allowed it to burn out.

Mr Ridler said: “We were open for business again on Wednesday.

“We have long laid contingency plans with partners in the industry who will deal with anything we cannot currently cope with, but we have a 15 acre site and have warehousing capacity that can take additional recycling materials.”

Mr Ridler said it was testament to modern building regulations that the fire was contained to the one building and he praised the fire service for their rapid response.

He said there was never a danger to anyone on or off site and added: “The site is only registered to handle non-hazardous and non toxic waste.

All that was burned was what you put in your wheelie bin.”

He expected the site to be fully operational again within a few weeks.

North Kesteven District Council’s head of regulatory services, Mark Taylor, said: “We would like to stress that refuse collections will not be affected and urge householders to put out their bins as normal.”