Alperton fire at food factory under control (From Ealing Times)

Alperton fire at food factory under control

12:40pm Thursday 11th June 2009

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A FIRE at a factory in Alperton which produces ready meals for major supermarkets has been brought under control.

Workers at the Katsouris food preparation plant believe the blaze started in the bakery at around 9am this morning and quickly spread to the rest of the building.

Alan Walker, a contractor who was part of a team making alterations to the factory, said everyone was told to evacuate immediately after the alarm was raised.

He said: “The fire alarm went off and we were told to get out.

“From outside I saw flames coming out of the roof. It's going to be a write-off.”

Dozens of staff have been evacuated from the factory, one of the four the company has on the Abbeydale Estate, which is on the outskirts of Park Royal.

The company, which produces ready meals for supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda, is reassigning staff at the moment to continue working in its other buildings.

Firefighters have surrounded the fire and have it under control, but they will be on the scene for large parts of this afternoon dampening down and extinguishing remaining pockets of fire.

Smoke continues to billow out of the roof of the factory, which appears to have been badly damaged in the blaze.

Paul Scott, a contractor from Stevens Weighing Machines, who was working the building when the fire broke out, said although he managed to move his van out of harms way, lots of expensive equipment is likely to have been damaged or destroyed.

He said: “It looked like a very big fire, there was lots of black smoke.

“The fire started in one part but with the wind, it quickly spread through the rest of the building.”

No one is thought to have been injured in the fire.

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