Firefighters spend 14 hours tackling Tyne Dock fire

Crews from South Shields and Hebburn were originally called to a fire 12.08pm on Tuesday, September 17, to a fire at a storage silo for biomass pellets at Tyne Dock.

The far is believed to have started accidentally when a welding spark caused dust to ignite.

Firefighters left the scene at 4.57pm but were called again just over 15 minutes later to a residual fire and remained at the scene until the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Crews from Sunderland and Tynemouth also attended the incident from the second call.

Specialist equipment was used to pierce the structure and cool the inside for 90 minutes before hose reels were used to extinguish the flames.

At times, firefighters were working at a height of 40 metres using breathing apparatus.