FIRE crews are still battling a fire at a landfill site near Wareham.

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service said that it received calls at around 7pm and it has sent eight firefighting appliances, including two water carriers, a high-volume pump and mechanical diggers, to the Trigon landfill site.

Firefighters have been at the site overnight and are still continuing to tackle the blaze, using a high water volume pump.

A spokesman for the service said it was expected fire crews would remain at the site for "another few hours" and that although the majority of the fire had been extinguished, there were still parts burning.

The spokesman added firefighters will then monitor and dampen down the area after it is fully put out.

It is the second fire at the site in the space of a year, following a blaze there in September last year.

Denise Bell, landlady at the nearby Silent Woman pub, said: “It is massive. Fire engines are coming her every two or three minutes to fill up.

“One of the firefighters said he believes this time is bigger than last time.

“Last time when it went up it was awful, we were all housebound for two days. I don’t know if we’ll get much sleep tonight.”

She said that earlier she had seen huge plumes of smoke from their garden.

A spokesman for Viridor, which owns the site, said tonight: "Viridor confirms that at 6.30pm today a fire was reported at its landfill site at Trigon, Bere Lane, Wareham.

"Six tenders from Dorset Fire and Rescue Services are in attendance, along with Viridor site personnel and the Environment Agency.

"Early indications are that this is a surface fire, which has been contained by the fire services. 

"With the site managing non-hazardous domestic and trade waste, there is no risk to public health, but the advice to surrounding properties, as with any fire, is to close windows until the situation has been resolved."

Bere Road has been closed to allow the emergency services to deal with the incident.