Fire chemicals risk 'negligible'

A devastating blaze at a factory in Leominster spread very quickly due to the large amount of plastics and cardboard in the building, fire chiefs have said.

Pete Benkwitz, the district commander for Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, said the severe fire at the Skymark Packaging building, off Southern Avenue, had grown and spread extremely fast.

He said the fire service was called by workers at the factory when the fire broke out at 3.50am yesterday.

He said: "By the time we turned up, we had a very severe fire, very rapidly developing, involving the whole of the building, which soon after collapsed.

"The fire began in a machine in the building. The workers attempted to stop it, then evacuated completely. At one time, we had 15 appliances with around 75 firefighters."

There were about 100 people involved in tackling the blaze.

The machine where the fire started is believed to be a printer, but nothing more is known at this stage.

Mr Benkwitz said the building collapse had given them some problems as a lot of material was left under the debris, still burning.

Specialist teams worked to get inside the building and compressed air foam was used to tackle the flames.

He said this was a relatively new technology which used less water and less foam, reducing potential damage to the environment.

Superintendent Kevin Purcell, from West Mercia Police, said Skymark had been helpful in informing the fire service of what chemicals were stored on the site. He said: "They have done everything that was required of them and more. In the longer term, we will be checking that there are no issues there."

Leominster was returning to normal today after yesterday's events. Schools that were closed were re-open today and rubbish collections that were halted because collection vehicles could not be accessed should be completed today and tomorrow.