Wolverhampton factory fire: Four units gutted in huge industrial blaze
Dozens of firefighters from throughout the Black Country battled for hours to control a massive blaze that gutted four industrial units in Wolverhampton overnight.
Twelve crews and two hydraulic platforms were needed to handle the inferno which was spotted by a security guard at the Clearwater Industrial Estate in Ettingshall Road, Ettingshall around 10.50pm last night.
As flames leaped through the roof and smoke billowed into the night sky, the blaze was fanned by strong winds and a wall collapsed in the heat, but fortunately without injury to any of the sixty-four crew members fighting the fire.
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The blaze is thought to have started in a unit belonging to A.S.H. Plastics, which was packed with highly flammable plastics and in the middle of a block of six.
It quickly spread to adjoining units, one of which was Archives, a document storage warehouse which provided fuel for the fire.
Two units in the block – one holding Christmas decorations for shopping malls - and several others nearby were saved but four were gutted by the blaze, the cause of which is still under investigation.
Watch Commander John Wildman from Bilston fire station, who was on the first appliance to arrive at the scene, said: "Flames were shooting through the roof and up four metres (12 feet) into the air above the building.
"The strength of the wind and the substances involved made it quite difficult to control but arrival of the hydraulic platforms made it easier to knock back the fire."
The units were each around ten metres (30 feet) wide and 30 metres (90 feet) long and Mr Wildman added: "The fact that they were so long, narrow and all joined together added to the difficulties we faced." Access was denied to the crews because of the danger of collapse.
"The building became unstable as the metal girders expanded in the extreme heat and the rear wall of one of the units fell down.
"Nobody was injured because the crews had seen the warning signs as the wall bowed in the heat."
It took crews around two hours to get the incident under control but firefighters were still damping down ten hours after it was first spotted.
West Midlands Fire Service tweeted to warn of the risk of asbestos and encouraged neighbours to keep their doors and windows closed due to smoke.
Many of the fire crews posted footage from the blaze online:
