A TEAM of 26 firefighters tackled a blaze at a factory on Wrexham Industrial Estate yesterday afternoon.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service sent three appliances from Wrexham and one from Johnstown to Porvair Filtration Group Ltd, Clywedog Road South, where staff had been evacuated from the building following the outbreak of a fire.

An aerial platform ladder and water carrier were used and members of the environmental protection unit were also sent to the specialist filtration and environment technology group premises on Wrexham Industrial Estate, but were not needed.

Firefighters received a call at about 3pm reporting a fire on the shop floor.

Firefighter Ian Williams, tactical manager at the scene, said nine sets of breathing apparatus were used but no-one was hurt.

Speaking at the scene at about 4.45pm, Mr Williams said: “Two main jets and two hose reels were used to bring the fire under control but by the time I arrived on site the whole factory was completely smoke-logged.

“The fire was located in a workshop in the centre of the building and could not be seen from the outside, so it took a while to find but once located we were able to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading.

“We then used the aerial appliance to check for hot spots.”

According to Mr Williams, the alarm system had worked efficiently but the factory was heavily smoke damaged. The cause of the blaze was unknown.

He said: “The environmental protection unit were called as a precaution as they always are in cases of factory fires where chemicals are in use because they can supply specialist equipment to deal with any chemical fire which might break-out.

“Our job now is to ventilate the factory which will take another couple of hours because of the height and shape of the roof.

“This fire had the potential to be a lot worse but because we were able to contain it in time we prevented it from escalating.”

A spokesman for North Wales Fire and Rescue said an investigation would be launched today to establish the cause of the fire.

A spokesman for Porvair said they were not able to comment.