THE devastated owner of an aerosol factory where fire destroyed two buildings says the repairs will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

About 50 firefighters tackled the inferno at LMA Services, on Pocklington Industrial Estate, on Thursday afternoon. There were several explosions as the fire burned.

The footage above was captured by Ian Wood.

York Press:

Fraser Todd, the owner of the aerosol manufacturer, is thankful that nobody was injured in the fire, which is believed to have started accidentally. 

There was nearly a full workforce at the factory, which has 32 members of staff, when the fire broke out at about 4.50pm. 

Mr Todd told The Press on Friday: "We are lucky to be where we are. It is always a risk dealing with flammable chemicals. We have lost two warehouses and lost some stock.

“It is devastating to see it but you live in hope that you will still have substantial parts of the business remaining and it could have been a lot worse.”

York Press:

Humberside Fire and Rescue Service asked local people to stay indoors and keep their doors closed at the height of the blaze. 

The fire was brought under control by late on Thursday night but a crew of firefighters remained on-scene overnight into Friday morning. 

A fire officer based at Pocklington Fire Station was at the scene this morning, he said: “The incident is under investigation from Humberside fire brigade's fire investigation team. Everything is under control now.

"It was a large scale incident which was extremely challenging for all the crews involved.

"There are two sheds that hold industrial chemicals that have been destroyed. The fire was contained to those two sheds, no other properties were affected.

"There has been relief crews overnight from Pocklington to monitor the scene. We have got one pump remaining, it will be here until the site is deemed completely safe, what time that will be I don’t know.

He added: "To my knowledge nobody was hurt or injured, just property."

York Press:

Picture: Richard Broadbent

Mr Todd spoke to the company’s insurers on Friday and also talked to representatives from the Environment Agency, who visited the site to investigate what impact a substantial amount of water mixing with various chemicals has had on the area.

These two videos were shared with us by Deborah Swallow from the Pocklington facebook group.

When asked about the possible cause of the fire, Mr Todd said: “We have got assessment information to go on but we are keeping that to ourselves.” 

Mr Todd added: “The cost of the damage will be hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

He has thanked the fire service for its swift response and for preventing the fire from spreading. The blaze was under control by about 8pm on Thursday. Staff were back at work on Friday morning and “business is continuing,” said Mr Todd.

A spokesperson for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said: “It’s early days for the investigation. It is going to be a lengthy process.”

The fire brigade say eight crews and 50 firefighters were on the scene at the height of the blaze. Back-up was brought in from North Yorkshire.

Louise McIver, whose family run the Power Health business next door to LMA Services, rushed to the scene after she became concerned the fire could spread to the company's offices. She said: "The fire is right next door to one of our buildings.

"I saw what was happening on Facebook and when we were told what was happening we wanted to come down and take a look.

"My parents own the business and I didn't want them to see this on the news and get upset without knowing what was going on."

One worker at Elvington Events, also based at the industrial estate, said he believed the fire had started at a nearby unit which dealt with compressed air and paint cylinders.

He said: "All we can see is an awful lot of black smoke and flames.

"I can hear popping going on but it's quite a fire. We can see thick black smoke from the other end of the estate, but we haven't been evacuated at this end."

Andy Morley, who works at Lissett Holiday Homes, which is based next to LMA Services, witnessed the fire shortly after it broke out. He said: “I saw a lot of flames coming out of the buildings. I could hear aerosols  exploding. It sounded like there were fireworks going off. It was well alight when I left at 5pm.

"Our building is based about 50 feet away, we are the next unit along."

These pictures and videos were tweeted from nearby: