Blaze-hit firms now forced to count cost

months.”

She said the restaurant, which can cater for up to 60 people, was closed at the time of the fire. She and Liam were the only people on the premises. “Liam heard the shouting outside by which time smoke was already going up the staircase. There are four businesses in the building and everyone had to get out.”

Steve O’Brien, of ladieswear shop Almond, said electric cabling in the store had been burned through and its entire stock – hundreds of garments – was smokedamaged. Almond also has a ladieswear shop and menswear shop in Kirkburton, but he said it would be some time before the Holmfirth shop could reopen.

“The problem we have is that being ‘high end’ we cannot just replace everything from a warehouse somewhere,” he said.

Robin Ferguson, watch commander at Huddersfield fire station, said sunbed salon Daisey’s was gutted in the fire.

A Facebook post by Daisey’s Nails and Beauty said: “As many if you may already be aware, their (sic) has been an unfortunate event at the salon. I’m afraid we will not be able to open for a while.”

Melanie Keddy, of KuttingKrew, described the scene as “chaos” today as the businesses affected began assessing the situation.

Danielle Ireland, of Brambles said her business had not been affected, although there was still a smell of smoke. “We were not evacuated,” she said. “We were able to carry on as normal, although the road was shut for quite a long time. We were very lucky really because we are just next door.”

Eyewitnesses to the drama included retired firefighter Stan Dawson, 59, of Meltham, who was in Brambles and ran out to see what was happening. He helped fire crews locate a nearby hydrant and watched as firefighters wearing breathing apparatus went in.

He said: “Someone shouted ‘Is anyone in here’ and someone else said ‘the people are all out.’”

Mr Dawson said five pumps attended and three crews wearing breathing apparatus went into buildings to check no-one was