AROUND 40 staff had to be evacuated from the Tetra Pak factory on Wrexham Industrial Estate after an electrical fault sparked a full-scale safety alert.

And the carton plant from where 130 workers were made redundant earlier this year was still without power to its office block hours later.

Four crews from Wrexham fire station were called to the factory at Bedwell Road in Cross Lanes just after 9am yesterday.

A spokesman for North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: “On arriving, we liaised with staff at the site to investigate.

“Entry was gained to the sub-station. It was found that heat damage had been caused to an electrical transformer that was due to a power surge. There was no fire situation.”

As part of standard procedure, all 40 staff in the building were evacuated to the car park, where they remained for just over 20 minutes before being given the all-clear to return.

A Tetra Pak spokesman said: “There was a small fault in an electrical transformer at the back of the factory.

“There are 150 people based here but only about 40 of them were present at the time. They were asked to wait on the car park until the fire service said it was safe to return.”

He added: “Although power was returned to the warehouse immediately, there was no power to the offices until later in the day, so people were working on their mobile phones and laptops. It was very much business as usual.”

In April, more than 130 workers clocked out of the for the final time.

The company said production had ended after 32 years because cartons it produced for the Russian and Middle Eastern markets were now being supplied by Tetra Pak factories in the two regions and the UK and Irish markets were not large enough to sustain it.

A new warehouse facility opened employing 21 of those workers who lost their jobs on the production side.