Fire at Stadco plant in Shrewsbury 'could have been worse'
A blaze that broke out at Shrewsbury car parts maker Stadco could have spread to the whole factory, firefighters said.
when a fire began involving machinery inside the premises.
But the fire was contained to the basement and stopped any further damage being done.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue incident commander Adam Matthews said they were called following reports of smoke coming from the building.
He said: "We believe it to be an accidental fire involving some sort of machinery.
"The fire was contained to the basement due to the actions of the crews that arrived first and tackled it to stop it spreading to potentially the whole factory.
"It could have been much worse, and that was down to the initial crews suppressing the fire.
"There were staff members on site when the fire started but all were led to safety and accounted for.
"The basement had been smoke damaged but the whole basement was not involved in the fire.
"Approximately 50 firefighters were at the incident which drew on a lot of resources from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Services, but our strategic managers were involved in ensuring cover moves to make sure the whole of Shropshire was still protected."
Crews from Albrighton, Baschurch, Clun, Craven Arms, Shrewsbury, Telford, Tweedale, Wellington and Wem were at the scene and spent five hours putting the flames out.
Firefighters used breathing apparatus, a CO2 extinguisher, a covering jet, hosereel jet, main jet and thermal imaging camera to tackle the fire.
Specialist ambulance staff from West Midlands Ambulance Service hazardous area response team were also called to support firefighters tackling the large factory fire.
Murray MacGregor, a WMAS spokesman, said: "All members of staff had been safely off the premises without incident, but ambulance staff remained on scene while the firefighters tackled the fire, which was in a restricted access area with the potential for chemicals to be involved.
"Ambulance staff were stood down at 4.45am after the blaze was safely brought under control."
Mr Matthews said: "It was for the firefighters' safety and welfare, it was not down to the amount of smoke but the volumes of firefighters on site. It meant should any have been injured we had a team alongside us to work and protect our firefighters.
The incident isn't being treated as suspicious and fire investigations are taking place."
Dinos Andreou, a spokesperson for Stadco, said: "There was a small electrical fire on one of the presses in our Shrewsbury facility in the early hours. The fire brigade were in attendance but the fire extinguished itself. No personnel were injured. The rest of the facility is continuing to run as normal."
