A terrifying fire tornado ripped through a Derbyshire, England, factory yesterday — as 50 firefighters battled to contain 60-foot flames.
Footage shows a funnel of fire stretching up several stories from the burning embers of an outdoor storage unit.
It contained more than 600,000 bread trays made by Ravensbourn plastics at the facility near Swadlincote, Derbs.
They erupted in flames just after 1:40 a.m. on Tuesday — sending thick black smoke billowing into the sky that could be seen 26 miles away in Nottingham.
Firefighters from three counties were dispatched in 10 engines to tackle the blaze.
The unit was left “completely gutted” and workers were told to stay home yesterday.
East Midlands Ambulance Service attended amid fears night shift staff may have been caught up in the inferno, but no injuries were reported.
A spokesman for Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “At the height of the fire, 10 fire engines, crews and specialist appliances from across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire had been at the incident.”
Panicked locals swamped emergency services with calls this morning after waking up to find huge smoke plumes in the sky.
Ashley Booth, 26, of Newhall said: “I was in bed when my mum ran in and woke me saying there were big plumes of smoke. It was crazy — I could see it all the way from Newhall.
“I am really glad no one is injured. It is terrible. The firefighters have done a great job in being here today.”
Staff at a nearby diner dished out free food and drinks to the “fantastic” fire crews.
Jeff Laight, co-owner at the diner, said yesterday: “We had a fire two years ago so it’s nothing to give out some bacon and sausages. We saw pictures on Facebook this morning with smoke billowing from behind the diner and thought the worst.
“When we got here we saw it wasn’t us and got the place working giving out food and coffees to the firefighters.”
David Meredith, 74, who is a co-owner of the plastics firm, said the factory is “fine” and expected it would be up and running again by today.
He added: “The main thing is that no-one was injured or burned. Stock can be replaced, people can’t.”
Operations director Russell Meredith, 36, added: “It is lucky it is this time of year as we are at half capacity. Had it been near Christmas when the trays are returned we could have had up to 1.5 million there and it probably would have been something you could see from space.
“Again the main thing is that no one is hurt and that everyone is safe. We can replace what has been lost. We apologize to nearby companies for the disruption and the road closures as we are isolated we don’t think the fire has spread.”
The cause of the fire has not yet been established and an investigation is underway.
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