Firefighters struggle with massive Smethwick recycling plant blaze
Firefighters are struggling to deal with a fire at a recycling plant in the Midlands which was started by a stray Chinese lantern.
They have called for them to be banned, after a fire started when bales of plastic at the site in Smethwick were set alight when the lantern floated over the factory.
A plume of black acrid smoke from the fire could be seen more than 20 miles away.
Vijith Randeniya, chief fire officer of West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service, said a Chinese fire lantern which sparked the fire in Smethwick, caused £6 million worth of damage.