Fire causes ‘substantial damage’ to cold mill at Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service

A FIRE at the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales caused “substantial damage” to a section of the site’s cold mill. All staff have been accounted for and no injuries were reported, operator Tata Steel confirmed yesterday morning, around 11 hours after the fire broke out on Wednesday night. 

Local fire crews remain on site to monitor the situation and have reported some reignition, which they said wasn’t uncommon for this type of incident. Tata Steel also shut down a hot rolling mill as a precaution, although the company confirmed that the fire was confined to the cold mill and expects to restart hot rolling production “shortly”. 

Around 100 emergency responders were deployed to the site on Wednesday night. The Rapid Relief Team (RRT), a charity affiliated to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, sent volunteers who served hot meals to fire crews. Local councillor Kellie Evans described the scene as “very apocalyptic”, telling BBC News she “couldn’t see the flames because the sky was so black”, while RRT reported that smoke could be “smelled and tasted” in a town around seven miles away. 

Tata also confirmed that the fire was unrelated to the demolition of an empty, redundant gas holder at the site the previous day. The cause of the fire and full scale of the damage have yet to be determined. However, Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite trade union, said there had been “substantial damage” to the “vital” production line, but thanked emergency services “for bringing the situation under control so quickly”.

Cold mills process steel that has already passed through a hot rolling mill, where it is shaped at temperatures of around 900°C. The steel is then cooled at room temperature before being shaped into the more precise finishes required by some applications such as aerospace components. The hot and cold mills at Port Talbot roll imported virgin steel following the closure of two blast furnaces at the site in 2024, which ended virgin steel production at the works and resulted in the loss of around 2,500 jobs. 

Graham added: “Measures must now be put in place to protect jobs both at Tata and down the supply chain during any period of disruption. 

“Meanwhile, we are asking Tata and the government to ensure that operations are rebuilt as swiftly as possible.”