Devastating fire that left two Marton businesses in ruin continues to burn this morning

A vicious blaze that devastated two businesses in Marton continued to burn throughout the night, with firefighters remaining at the scene this morning.
Pockets of fire still burning at Nationwide Catering LtdPockets of fire still burning at Nationwide Catering Ltd
Pockets of fire still burning at Nationwide Catering Ltd

Cowley Road was closed this morning, with firefighters working to extinguish the remains of the huge fire that ripped through two commercial buildings yesterday.

Both Nationwide Catering Ltd and the neighbouring Rainbow Candies Ltd were left in ruins by the fire, which broke out at around 7am and spread at around 1pm yesterday.

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Fire crews remained on site throughout the night, tackling pockets of fire trapped in the wreckage of the catering building that was still smoking at 9.30am today.

Cowley Road was closed this morningCowley Road was closed this morning
Cowley Road was closed this morning

Fire incident commander Tim Murrell said: "With any large industrial fire like this, units that use sandwich panels in the roof will fail in high temperatures, and the roof drops.

"The problem is that it becomes very difficult to put the fire out, so we have to use the aerial ladder platform.

"We have stopped the fire spreading and put most of the fire out, but there are pockets of fire underneath the roof that has dropped in that are hard to put out.

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"It's a balance between minimising risk to firefighters and putting out the fire completely.

"We have had five pumps here all night."

It is expected that the fire will be extinguished sometime today.

Both the catering company building and the Rainbow Candies building, which is about 50m long, have been 'gutted', he said.

A spokesman for the fire and rescue service said the cause of the fire was still under investigation - and that i could take 'days or even weeks' to establish a cause.

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