Rail line is closed by blaze debris

A railway line was closed overnight after a fire at a Black Country timber yard left debris on the tracks.

The empty Masons Timber Yard building in Willenhall collapsed onto the line between Walsall and Wolverhampton after the blaze started at around 7.05pm yesterday.

An asbestos roof on the building, in Rose Hill, was also damaged.

Firefighters told a nearby restaurant and social club to close their doors and windows and turn off air conditioning, but said that the level of asbestos was "fairly low". Eight fire crews were sent to tackle the blaze .

Group commander Bill Gough, from West Midlands Fire Service said: "The danger of asbestos is fairly low and unlikely to cause harm.

"There is a lot of smoke and steam around though.

"The key thing for us here is that the building is right next to the rail lines, and there is some debris on the track."

He said t hat the overhead lines had 25,000 volts running through them so so they had to get those turned off before they could use water to put the fire out and remove debris.

He added: "We have an engineer with Network Rail out with us. It is a main commuter line so tonight people won't be affected by the closure. If it isn't open by 3am there will be some delays but we are doing everything we can to get it back up before then."

Crew Commander Dave Foley from Tipton fire station added: "When the first crews got there it was pretty well ablaze.

"The building them collapsed and landed about three foot from the main rail lines.

"It was an awkward job because of that and we had to use a Bob Cat, which is like a mini JCB, to break it up and turn it."

He added: "We think the fire is suspicious at the moment." The whole of the single story corrugated sheet building was wrecked by the fire.