Reprotech blaze was second that week

Just three days before the huge blaze, which involved eleven stations and 70 firefighters working round the clock to extinguish, there had been a smaller fire in the same pellet shed.

On the Thursday evening, three days before the blaze, firefighters were called to the Pebsham plant at 10pm, to deal with a pellet fire.

A Fire Brigade spokesman said: "Appliances from Bohemia and the Ridge West stations were called to a small fire in the pellet store at about 10pm.

"They spent about half an hour there and used a mechanical digger to drag the burning pellets from the store putting them out and damping down."

Last Friday, a former employee of the waste-derived fuel reprocessing plant, who did not wish to be named, claimed the fire was put out, but the following day, freshly-made pellets were stored on top of the old ones.

Last Wednesday, he claimed, a third of the workforce was laid off until the plant re-opened, which could be as long as eight months.

On Thursday David Watts, managing director, confirmed eight general cleaners had been laid off temporarily. He said they would get their jobs back when the plant was operating again.

The fire brigade has said the likely cause of the fire was the hot weather, leading to a build-up of heat, with the huge stockpile of pellets self-igniting in the store.

Mr Watts said if this was found to be the case, different storage arrangements would have to be made.