Bradford food factory badly damaged in blaze

Over 50 firefighters had to tackle a fire a fire at a food processing factory in Bradford, West Yorkshire, at the weekend, with the damage thought to have been quite extensive.

Fire crews from six stations joined the special units and firefighters from Odsal and Bradford in helping to keep the fire under control at the meat packaging plant, which started just after 2:00am on Saturday morning.

Thick smoke was seen coming from the building and part of the roof caved in.

Odsal watch commander Peter Rushby said:

“There was a lot of smoke and flames when we arrived.

“The fire had spread from the yard into the building and there were still isolated pockets of fire at 7.30am today.

“We were hampered by the weather because there was at least two or three inches of snow on the ground, which hampered the appliances getting to the incident. It was very treacherous on the roads and, once we were there, we started using water, which was freezing.”

It was expected that about a fifth of the single-storey factory, which is located in Haycliffe Lane, Wibsey, was destroyed in the incident.

An investigation is now underway into the cause of the fire, although police have said that arson is suspected.