Crews battle blaze at plastics factory

were given water. Crompton Mouldings staff were said to be ‘devastated’ and in shock.

Jim Butters, one of the fire officers at the scene, said: “When we first arrived we were faced with a serious fire that was fully involved in the building.

“We have managed to attack that fire fairly promptly and prevented it from spreading to neighbouring buildings – that has been quite an involved task because it’s quite a large site.”

He added: “As we all know the weather conditions were extremely hot, it’s extremely hard work for the firefighters but they have done an excellent job, particularly the first crews on the scene.”

Mr Butters said he believed that everyone had got out of the building safely.

“We worked closely with site management but everybody appears to have got out safely.”

As the afternoon went on the number of crews at the scene were reduced.

Incident commander Toby May said also crews had worked very hard in the extremely hot weather.

Shortly before 5pm he said that a ‘slight fire’ was still burning inside the building but the number of crews had been scaled back.

He said firefighters would remain at the scene “long into the evening”.

A spokesman for the West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue service said: “Crews have worked extremely hard in difficult conditions.

“They managed to save two buildings either side of the one involved in the fire.”

Wakefield Road was closed in both directions as crews tackled the fire.

The closure caused serious congestion in the area. It was reopened at around 5pm.