A major fire has destroyed large parts of a Primaflor UK packhouse in Bedfordshire.
The blaze at the site in Potton Road, Biggleswade, took hold at 7pm on 19 April, with 70 firefighters brought in to tackle the inferno. There were no reported casualties, and it is understood the cause of the fire has not yet been established.
Emergency services reported needing aerial platforms, ground monitors and firefighting jets to extinguish the blaze, with a minor fire also spreading to an adjacent building.
The site is leased from Bedfordshire Growers to Primaflor for the distribution of their salad products, and the fire destroyed significant parts of the loading bays, coldstorage and packhouse facility.
A joint statement from Bedfordshire Growers managing director Stephen Hedderly and SAT Primaflor corporate director Cecilio Peregrin said: 'We would like to pay tribute importantly to the professionalism and heroics of the emergency services, most importantly the fire service, who contained the fire and significantly limited the damage caused.
'We would also like to praise the support we have had from our customers and employees which enabled both business to be operational by 8am Friday morning. Which bearing in mind the scale of the fire and disruption is an outstanding performance.
'It is also hugely important to say thank you for the enormous amount of offers of support and encouragement from the produce community; this has been both overwhelming and humbling, and we thank you sincerely for those kind and proactive gestures. We are not in a position at this stage to understand the root cause of the incident and are working with the fire investigation services, however it is believed to have started on a trailer which was at the time connected to a loading bay.'
On April 20 Bedfordshire Fire & Rescue Service tweeted: 'Potton Road, Biggleswade fire investigation is now complete, but cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed. There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident.'
