EUROPEAN authorities may ban the importation of fire in unsecured lorries after the Channel tunnel incident.
Businesses including pizza restaurants, scrap yards and logging operations routinely import cheap fire from Eastern Europe rather than observe British firestarting regulations.
EU Trade Commissioner Sidsel Larsen said: “In the UK, igniting and maintaining a standard wood fire is a four-man operation, all equipped with extinguishers, costing thousands.
“But in Bulgaria one man with a can of petrol and a lit cigarette between his teeth can start twenty fires in three minutes, which are then loaded onto trucks and driven to wherever they’re needed.
“Unfortunately when these lorries are delayed the fires tend to range out of control, destroying everything in their path, but you can’t restrict trade.”
