Dublin, Ireland 18 April 2013 -- A substantial fire has hit Smurfit Kappa Group's paper mill in Birmingham. According to Birmingham Resilience, West Midland Fire Service are fighting the blaze with 100 fire fighters and were making a good progress. No casualties or fatalities have been reported.

A spokesperson for the West Midland Fire Service tweeted on Thursday morning that about 10,000 t of recycled cardboard bales in a large outdoor storage area were alight and that high winds were hampering fire fighting.

The fire broke out in the recovered paper yard on Wednesday evening around 10 pm, a spokesperson for Smurfit Kappa Recycling confirmed. Fire fighters were still on site working at noon on Thursday. Smurfit Kappa Recycling said it was too early to assess the extent of the damage at this stage.

Smurfit Kappa SSK paper mill is located in the Nechells area of Birmingham and produces recycled containerboard, mainly for the corrugated case industry in the UK and Ireland. The mill runs one paper machine producing testliner 2, testliner 3 and recycled fluting in a grammage range of 100-220 g/m². According to Smurfit Kappa SSK, the company is processing about 200,000 t of recovered paper every year.