200 tackle region's biggest blaze
Dozens of workers were evacuated as a fire raged through a Black Country industrial estate, in what has been confirmed as the biggest blaze in the West Midlands this year.
Dozens of workers were evacuated as a fire raged through a Black Country industrial estate, in what has been confirmed as the biggest blaze in the West Midlands this year.
The fire devastated three buildings on the Hawthorn Trading Estate in Cornwall Road, Smethwick, with 200 firefighters called to battle the flames.
Click on the numbers below to see more pictures of the incident.
A cordon with a half mile radius was erected around the burning buildings and Smethwick and Birmingham residents warned to keep doors and windows closed, after it was feared deadly asbestos could have been released into the air.
An exclusion is zone is still in place today as acetylene cylinders are believed to have been stored in one of the buildings affected.
A total of 30 fire engines arrived at the industrial estate just after noon yesterday from as far afield as Coventry and Wolverhampton.nextpage
