A MASSIVE scrapyard fire on Teesside has left a £500,000 trail of destruction.

Firefighters fought the blaze at the premises of CL Prosser, in Skippers Lane, Middlesbrough, for more than five hours yesterday.

A 20ft car crushing compressor was wrecked in the fire, while 700 gallons of hydraulic oil blazed.

A spokesman at the yard said last night: "It's a big set- back. It's a big inconvenience.

"It's no good saying insurance will take care of it. At the end of the day, it is a loss of production and time.

"We have other machines, but that machine will be maintenance assessed in the morning when it has cooled down."

The spokesman said the cause of the fire was still being investigated but it could have been ignited by something in the car in the crusher at the time fire broke out.