Express & Star

Blazes destroy car site and unit

A Black Country car depot and an empty industrial warehouse were gutted in separate fires today.

Published

Crews from across the Black Country spent more than five hours battling a blaze at Auto Technique at an industrial park on Strawberry Lane, Wednesfield.

Click on the numbers below to see more pictures of the fires.

The fire – which sent flames up to 15 ft into the air at its peak – destroyed more than a dozen cars, including top-of-the-range models, and gutted the building.

Today investigators were looking into the possibility the fire, which begun at 11.15pm, was started deliberately. The owner is too upset to talk about the blaze.

Willenhall Fire Station Commander Andy Morgan, said: "The building posed extra danger to firefighters because there was asbestos in the walls."

Meanwhile flames tore through the corrugated roof of an empty industrial warehouse in Cradley Forge, Cradley, at about 7.20am today, sending black smoke billowing into the air across neighbouring homes.

The road was closed for more than an hour while about 30 firefighters tackled the blaze.nextpage

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