Amazon blaze: 'Suspicious' fire rips through huge Staffordshire warehouse weeks before Christmas

Workers were forced to evacuate after a large amount of goods were damaged by a fire which engulfed parts of Amazon's huge warehouse in Rugeley.

Fire investigators today confirmed they are treating the blaze as suspicious and believe it may have been started deliberately.

The fire took hold on the third floor of the sprawling warehouse on Saturday afternoon before quickly spreading to the fourth floor.

Staffordshire Fire Service said there had been a 'full evacuation' of the site, off Power Station Road, after the blaze started around 12.15pm.

Amazon confirmed staff had only been able to go back to work yesterday.

Dozens of firefighters were involved in tackling the blaze with ten sent in wearing breathing apparatus to get close enough to quell the flames.

The blaze involved a large amount of goods which were well alight when the crews arrived.

The fire spread in the large distribution centre as it prepares for its busiest time of the year during the run up to Christmas.

It is unclear at this stage what this means for deliveries of Christmas orders ahead of the festive season.

The fire comes around a year after a similar blaze in a picking area of the large distribution centre.

More than 1,500 staff are thought to work in Rugeley for the global online retail giant.

Fire Investigation Officer Carl Mason, from Staffordshire Fire Service, said the blaze has left the warehouse with serious damage.

He also voiced concerns over the 'deliberate' blaze taking up time and resources for the stretched fire service.

“This was quite a large scale incident which took several hours to deal with due to the type of materials inside the building and the level of smoke logging which took significant time to ventilate," he said.

"The blaze has left the building seriously damaged but fortunately everyone inside was safely evacuated and no one was injured during the incident.

“Thankfully the building did have a sprinkler system fitted which has prevented the fire from spreading and becoming far more serious.

“It is very concerning that this fire seems to have been deliberate as large scale incident such as this take up a lot of time and resources.

"Taking up valuable resources by causing fires deliberately is extremely worrying for the service when there may be people in desperate need of our response.

“We will continue to work closely with Staffordshire Police on their on going investigation into the incident.”

At the height of the blaze four engines from Barton-under-Needwood, Cannock, Lichfield and Chase Terrace fire stations attended along with Gnosall who acted as a relief crew later that day.

Ten firefighters wore breathing apparatus to tackle the fire which filled the building with smoke and a large amount of the goods inside the property seriously damaged by fire, heat and smoke.

Staffordshire Fire Service said its probe indicated the blaze was deliberate and a full forensic police investigation is now under way.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "A police investigation is underway after colleagues from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service determined the cause of a fire at a warehouse in Rugeley may have been caused deliberately."

Anyone who may have witnessed suspicious activity is asked to call police on 101 referring to incident 349 of November 4.