Fire rips through Dudley steel factory
A large fire ripped through a steel door factory in Dudley overnight.
Around 40 firefighters were called to the blaze at Dove Steel Doors on the Dudley Central Trading Estate, which started shortly before midnight.
Footage from the scene showed smoke billowing into the sky as flames tore through part of the unit, while aerial photos have revealed the scale of the damage to the roof.
Transport planner Paul Crowther was about a mile away from the scene last night when he saw an orange glow.
He drove towards it and saw the blaze then rang the fire service.
"I was heading home and I could see an orange glow in the sky," he added. "I went up there and nobody was about.
"I put the call into the fire service and they sent the crews out.
"I could hear the roof popping and there were bits and pieces flying off.
"I was in my car on the other side of the road and I could feel the heat on my face through the car window."
West Midlands Fire Service advised people to stay away from the area and paramedics were also sent to the scene but nobody was injured.
Firefighters remained at the factory this morning, with the cause of the blaze being investigated.
A spokesman for West Midlands Fire Service said: "At 11.57pm on Sunday 12 July we responded to a severe fire in an industrial unit on the Dudley Central Trading Estate, Shaw Road, Blowers Green.
"The first of our crews was at the scene in under five minutes and we had a total of seven fire engines, a hydraulic platform and some 40 firefighters there.
"Shaw Road was closed while we dealt with the incident.
"By 5.15am we had scaled down our resources to just one fire engine and our fire investigator who is working to establish the cause."
Jamie Arrowsmith, spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service, said: "We were called to reports of a fire at an industrial premises on Shaw Road at 00.13am this morning.
"One ambulance, two paramedic officers and a HART paramedic attended the scene. Thankfully there were no patients requiring treatment."
Dove Steel Doors designs and makes precision-built steel doors and frames for industrial, commercial and residential buildings.
The fire happened just 300 metres away from the site of another recent fire, which destroyed much of a former school building.
That blaze at the former Sir Gilbert Claughton School on Blowers Green Road is believed to have been the result of an arson attack.
