Blaze hits town centre warehouse

3:44pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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A TOWN centre warehouse was gutted by an intensive blaze early this afternoon.

The two-storey building in a yard behind Duke Street, Darlington, caught fire shortly before 2pm.

Initial reports suggested the building was housing, but it was found to be used as a storage unit for a roofing contractor.

The building is in a yard between Outram Street, Duke Street, Napier Street and Stanhope Road North, situated among businesses and terraced homes.

Five fire crews were called to the blaze, including the county's aerial platform as well as two appliances from Darlington, one from Newton Aycliffe and one from Bishop Auckland.

Firefighters used jets, hose reels and breathing apparatus to tackle the incident and formed a water shield between the property and nearby homes.

The aerial platform was used to deal with the fire from above because of damage caused inside the warehouse.

Police officers were also in attendance to seal off nearby roads and an ambulance crew was called. However, no injuries were reported.

Andy Whitehead, assistant operations manager of County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Team, said: "The situation has been made considerably worse by congestion and the tight alleyways.

"It has been fairly intensive. We don't know what was stored in there. Because it was used as storage, there may have been thing that accelerated the fire."