RESIDENTS were evacuated after a huge fire at a disused Huddersfield factory.
And a police inquiry is now under way into the blaze, which is being treated as suspicious.
People living in flats next to the former Taylor Valves factory in Milnsbridge fled their homes during the incident.
Forty firefighters battled the blaze which broke out at the Dowker Street site at 8.30pm on Wednesday.
Watch commander Andy Blackburn, from Huddersfield Fire Station, said streets had to be closed and utility companies called out to isolate power supplies due to the severity of the blaze, which destroyed more than 30% of the single-storey building.
Flames shot through the roof and a huge pall of smoke drifted high into the sky.
Watch commander Blackburn added: “It was a big fire and the heat was intense.
“There were around 100 people out on the streets watching. You could see smoke plumes from Longroyd Bridge, such was the intensity.”
Ten residents, who live in four flats just across a ginnel from the factory, were evacuated at 9pm.
Odsal station commander Paul Taylor, who was in charge at the scene, explained: “We had to evacuate some properties on Market Street due to potential structural collapse of the building.
“The people evacuated were a mix of ages and they were allowed back into their homes around midnight when we were sure the building was structurally safe.”
Two fire crews from Huddersfield and one each from Slaithwaite, Brighouse and Elland, helped douse the flames.
Station commander Taylor said: “We had five appliances and an aerial ladder platform working to control the fire and stop it spreading to the rest of the factory.
“The fire was under control by 10.30pm and it was out by 1am. We had at least two fire engines here through the night making sure there were no hot-spots.
“The rain has helped us – but the lads are wet through.”
Many residents took pictures and videos of the drama as it unfolded.
Ross Turner, who lives in Commercial Mills across the road from the factory, said: “I smelled burning shortly before 8.30pm and thought at first someone had left something in an oven.
“But when I looked out of the window I could see the first few wisps of smoke from the factory and called the fire brigade.
“It seemed to spread very quickly and was through the roof.”
A fire investigator was at the scene on Wednesday night, but the cause of the blaze is yet to be discovered.
Station commander Taylor added that former industrial sites like Taylor Valves were particularly vulnerable to fire.
“These large unoccupied complexes pose a problem because there are so many access points where youngsters can get in,” he said.
“We’re asking residents who overlook these premises to report if they see any boarding has been removed.”
West Yorkshire Fire Service handed the incident over to the police at 9am yesterday.
Hannah Schofield, 30, who lives across from the factory on Armitage Street, saw the fire when she returned home at 9.30pm on Wednesday.
“I could see the smoke as I came down Market Street and I thought it might be the factory because there have been quite a few fires there before.”
Ernest Lumb, 48, returned home to Armitage Street at 10pm after completing his shift as a cleaner at Thornton and Ross in Linthwaite.
“There were a lot of people around watching and I think the firefighters were concerned that the gable ends might collapse,” he said.
“It was an intense fire because it broke out in the pattern shop where there’s a lot of wood.”
Taylor Shaw moved to St Thomas’s Road, Folly Hall, in 2008 a year after the firm was rescued from receivership by Brighouse-based Blackhall Engineering.
Kirklees Council refused planning permission for 12 houses and 29 flats at the site in April.
But developer Wordsworth Holdings applied again the following month, this time asking for permission to build 34 houses and two flats. Kirklees is yet to decide on the second application.
Mr Lumb said: “It’s something that needs sorting out because there have been cable thefts and arson attacks. There was a fire two weeks ago and a few fires last year.
“The residents just want some decision on whether the factory’s going to be knocked down and what’s going to be put in its place.”
