Fire teams were still fighting a blazing mountain of thousands of tonnes of wood chippings at Ridham Dock, Iwade, tonight. The shredded timber has been burning for more than 36 hours.

Plumes of smoke could be seen for miles around when the recycled waste caught fire on Saturday morning at the depot of Countrystyle Recycling which handles 100,000 tonnes of timber a year.

Only four weeks ago a two-hour training exercise code-named Chipper was held at the site to prepare for just such an emergency.

Four crews from Sheerness, Eastchurch, Sittingbourne and Rainham went to a simulated out-of-control blaze involving a wood-chipping machine and used a ‘fog spike’ to spray a fine mist of water over the area.

Sheppey watch manager Andy Bridger-Smart said at the time: “Being well prepared to respond to emergencies is at the centre of what we do. This type of training is essential to ensure plans are tried and tested, should the worst happen.”

The exercise also involved the Environment Department.

Fire crews from Sittingbourne and Eastchurch attended this weekend’s blaze. A spokesman for Kent Fire and Rescue said: “We tackled a fire involving a large amount of wood chippings at Ridham Dock. Crews used a covering jet to tackle the fire. They were also working alongside an on-site crew which was using machinery to break up the pile of chippings.”

It was only on Friday that Countrystyle announced it had won a three-year contract with Canterbury Christ Church University worth £1 million. The contract covers collecting waste from the university’s three sites in Canterbury, Broadstairs and Medway, halls of residence, Student Union bars and cafes, offices, libraries and sporting venues.

The privately-owned company is based at Lenham and handles more than 500,000 tonnes of waste a year from 2,000 customers. The flagship site at Ridham provides specialist waste recycling services for plasterboard, wood and organic waste which produces sustainable peat-free compost.

Reprocessed timber is turned into woodchip boards or used to fuel the growing number of biomass boilers. Much is exported to Sweden, Finland and Germany in a fleet of 50 ships.

Sonya Cragg, head of sales and marketing at Countrystyle Recycling said: “We are engaged in implementing our fire management plan to tackle a controlled fire in one of our stockpiles of processed waste wood at Ridham Sea Terminals.

“This plan is being delivered in conjunction with Kent Fire and Rescue Service, who recently carried out a training exercise at our request at our wood recycling facility at Ridham, and the Environment Agency. The fighting of the fire and the mitigation of any adverse impact on the surrounding area is being closely monitored by Countrystyle in association with KF&RS and the EA.”

Countrystyle, which was founded in 1996, operates waste transfer stations at Strood and Folkestone and a paper, cardboard and plastics baling factory near Maidstone. It has a fleet of more than 150 vehicles.

In 2014 it spent £1 million on building a recycling line at the DS Smiths paper mill at Sittingbourne. It has won waste contracts for Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, Bucks County Council, West London Waste Authority; Kent County Cricket Club and Westwood Cross shopping centre in Thanet.