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Wolverhampton t-shirt business wrecked by fire as workers evacuated

A fire has wrecked a t-shirt manufacturing business after flames engulfed the basement of a factory unit in Wolverhampton.

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Ten people were evacuated from the three-storey building on Marshalls Industrial Estate, in Blakenhall, at around 7pm yesterday.

One man who worked inside the basement of the building, home to a t-shirt making business, alerted fire crews to the blaze.

Flames were sparked around a conveyor belt machine used to dry the t-shirts inside the basement measuring around 65ft by 65ft.

Around 20 firefighters from Wolverhampton, Fallings Park and Bilston fire stations arrived at the scene to battle the blaze.

People were evacuated from neighbouring businesses inside the building and Sedgley Street was closed as the fire was tackled.

Watch commander Tony Bucknall, from Wolverhampton fire station, said: "It was quite a severe blaze. We had to evacuate 10 people from different areas.

"The difficulty with the fire was because it was in the basement, it was very hot in there.

"I think once the t-shirts are made they are dried on a conveyor belt. One of the t-shirts got stuck, we believe.

The fire took around four hours to extinguish but crews went back to the site twice during the early hours to make checks.

Six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were able to get close enough to douse the flames at the site.

There had also been some water which had got into the basement of a neighbouring business which crews helped clear.

The road reopened at around 11pm.

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