FIREfighters battled for more than two hours to control a fierce blaze in a scrapyard behind a North Yorkshire garage.

An owner of the Beansheaf Garage in Malton Road, near Pickering, said it was lucky the business stopped selling fuel a number of years ago – or the situation could have turned into “a nightmare”.

The drama began at about 4.45pm on Saturday when the fire service was alerted to the blaze at the rear of the building. Four fire engines and more than 30 firefighters were scrambled from Malton, Kirkbymoorside, and Pickering stations.

It was not clear at first whether the rear of the garage was alight. But the 999 crews arrived to find scrap cars and tyres blazing in the scrapyard to the rear of the premises.

A North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service spokesman said: “The fire involved about 20 scrap cars and a large amount of scrap tyres.

“The cause was due to radiated heat from a burning drum – like a brazier.”

It was not until after 7pm that the fire was brought under control. They planned to return to the scene yesterday to carry out routine safety checks on the site, the spokesman said.

One of the owners, Dorothy Emms, said it would be open for business as normal today.

The garage provides car workshop services and a 24-hour recovery operation, which was also unaffected.

But there is no longer a petrol filling station on site. Mrs Emms said: “It could have been an awful lot worse. There is just a bit of window damage to the garage.

“The fire just involved vehicles that are stored or waiting to be moved on. We have not been selling fuel for seven years and the filling station is closed. Otherwise it would have been a nightmare. Striking a match even when you have fuel on sale is a nightmare. But we did not have that problem.”

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service said the alarm had been raised at 4.44pm and the crews issued a stop message at 7.10pm to say the blaze was under control.

Mrs Emms said yesterday: “We are open for business. There is no workshop because it is Sunday, but the 24-hour recovery service is containing and we will be open fully for business on Monday.”