'I heard a big sound, like a bomb': Telford primary school evacuated after fuel tanker fire

Nine fire crews were sent to the scene of the fire on Rock Road in Overdale, Telford, shortly after noon today - Tuesday, April 14.

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Neighbours living on nearby Maxfield Crescent reported hearing several explosions before the sky was filled with a thick plume of black smoke.

One said: “It was quite scary, I heard a big sound like a bomb.”

People were advised to close doors and windows as the smoke, which could be seen from the M54, the other side of the Wrekin, billowed into the air.

Pupils at nearby Newdale Primary School and Nursery, just a hundred metres or so from the tanker, were on a lunch break as the vehicle ignited.

The school’s headteacher, Rachel Cook, described seeing the thick black smoke before hearing loud bangs.

She and staff sprang into immediate action, moving the pupils inside the school, before evacuating the building in a seamless operation and moving the youngsters to safety.

Firefighters tackling the incident, which was on the steep Rock Road, were confronted with a tanker engulfed in raging flames.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said the tanker contained kerosene.

The heat of the flames ignited hedges up and down the hill either side of the tanker, with fire crews battling to get the fire under control and prevent it spreading to nearby homes.

At one point the flammable heating oil was pouring down the hill.

Firefighters used special foam to deal with the fire, getting the dangerous situation under control by around 1.40pm.

West Midlands Ambulance Service attended and said one man was assessed at the scene by paramedics before being taken to hospital.

Parents praised the school for their efforts to look after children, who were first moved inside the school, and then away from the building into Lawley in an operation conducted with military precision.

Mrs Cook explained that staff had sprung into action to secure the safety of the children after first seeing smoke - then hearing the explosions.

She said: “It happened at lunchtime which isn’t ideal because it means we have got children in the dinner hall, we have got children in the corridors, we have got children on the playground, we have got children literally everywhere, so it is not ideal at all.

“I was made aware there was a plume of smoke at the rear of our school, not on our premises, so I went to investigate, at which point we heard explosions starting to erupt, so we quickly retreated and made the very quick decision to invacuate the children into school.

“Very soon after that because I immediately called emergency services, however somebody had already done that, and we were directed to evacuate the children.”

Mrs Cook praised staff and the pupils for the way they coped with the emergency.

She said: “I was was absolutely delighted with how calm the staff were and how quickly they went into emergency policy and procedure and also the children following instruction as well, so it worked so well in accordance with our policies so I was delighted with that.”

She added: “It is a lot of big responsibility, we have got about 450 to 500 children on site today and some of them only two years old so to evacuate them, a long distance away from school was quite challenging, but it was like a military procedure so I was delighted.”

The head also praised the community response, with businesses and local residents all stepping up to offer help and support.

She said: “The one thing that really heartened me was the community spirit. So from the second we started to leave through the main entrance we had people locally coming with blankets offering support, and offering their homes to see whether we wanted some of our little ones to go in, in the warm, and all the way, because we had to go all the way down to Lawley, we have had Lawley Academy school offering their space, we had Morrison’s, PureGym - we had hundreds of children in PureGym at one point, and the Grazing Cow pub as well, so I know people in the community really rallied together to support us and that has really helped keep people calm.”

Mrs Cook said the school will debrief with the youngsters after the incident but praised them as “fantastic” for their response in the moment.

She said: “As you can imagine it was a big event and at times quite confusing and there were some children that were upset and panicked by it but they followed the instruction from the staff brilliantly as we trusted that they would do and they are all safe and sound.”

She added: “They were fantastic.”

The school will be open again on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Mark Price, temporary assistant chief fire officer, hailed the efforts of his crews in tackling a risky and dangerous situation in a swift and safe manner.

He said: “What we turned up to was a significant fire in a petrol tanker vehicle located in quite close proximity to a primary school.

“Crews have arrived and taken assertive action which has meant putting what we call foam on the vehicle.

“It has been a very dynamic incident because this has involved what we call a camber, so like a hillside, so obviously what you can tell is the liquid elements have been coming down the hill.

“So the crews are faced with quite a dynamic risky situation. Being the crews that they are, being very assertive they have been able to get the incident under control in what I would say is a very rapid pace, and through the use of foam and the assertive firefighting put the incident out in quite a quick time as well with minimal damage to the environment and the surroundings.”