INVESTIGATIONS were under way today after firefighters were called to a blaze involving 33 tons of rubbish including two caravans and a number of tyres.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus battled with 20ft flames and dense black smoke after being called to Wolverley, near Kidderminster, just after 7pm yesterday.

Three hours

One fire crew and a water carrier from Kidderminster's White Watch joined officers from the Environment Agency at the scene.

The fire, which took three hours to put out, is thought to have been started deliberately.

Firefighter Warren Midgley, from the Kidderminster station, said the rubbish, which also consisted of paint tins and aerosol cans, was well alight when they arrived.

He added it had taken a long time to extinguish the blaze at Wolverley Plant Hire, Kingsford Lane, as firefighters had to dowse the rubbish in layers.

"It was so hot we couldn't penetrate the centre of the fire, so we had to take layers off and dowse them," he said.

"There were a lot of chemicals involved so we had to block the drains to ensure the contaminated water didn't get into the water supply."

Lynn Fraley, spokeswoman for the Environment Agency, said investigations would be carried out to see if the fire had caused damage to the site.

"The water from extinguishing the fire was soaked up by a sandy track the fire was on," she said.

"There may have an impact on the land from the fire but we won't know until next week when we've cleared the site."