Fire fighters put out the fire at AmeyCespa recycling plant in Waterbeach on Friday night and by Saturday morning all fire engines had left the scene.

Group fire commander Chris Parker, officer in charge, said they had handed the site back to Amey managers.

“It has been with thanks to the tireless efforts of crews yesterday and the close and effective working with staff at Amey that we have been able to conclude this incident much sooner than originally anticipated,” he said.

“Early indications from the fire investigations conclude it started accidentally.”

Earlier Cambs fire had posted a photo inside the Amey recycling centre where the fire started.

Mr Parker said work between the fire service and site management to remove the affected material and pockets of smouldering debris will continue over the weekend.

Cambs fire said the number of resources required was quickly increased once the call had gone in and at one stage there were eight fire engines in attendance along with a command unit and support fire engine, high volume pump to pump large amounts of water, and other specialist firefighting engines and officers.

Approximately 15,000 tonnes of organic waste material are stored in an industrial recycling unit measuring 200m by 30m and various seats of fire in the unit were tackled by firefighters wearing breathing apparatus using hose reels and jets.

The building was safely evacuated and the fire service said there was no threat to public safety.

Crews from across the county had been at the plant, off the A10 between Ely and Cambridge, since 9.30am tackling a fire affecting about 15,000 tonnes of organic waste material.

A fire service spokesman described there being “various seats of fire” in the recycling unit, measuring about 20m by 3m.