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Tyre warehouse fire halts trains | Tyre warehouse fire halts trains |
(about 5 hours later) | |
Trains in and out of Hereford have been cancelled amid fears a fire-hit building could collapse onto tracks. | |
More than 50 firefighters have been tackling a severe fire at Wyvern Tyres on the Holmer Trading Estate left thick black smoke across parts of the city. | |
Roads were closed and trains to Worcester and Shrewsbury were cancelled due to debris on the line. | |
Parts of the building have collapsed and trains are not running due to fears a wall may fall onto tracks. | |
'Other side' | |
Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to the scene at about 1945 GMT on Monday. | |
It said crews from 10 fire engines tackled the blaze at its height and had the fire under control by 2300 GMT. | |
However soon after they received reports of a partial collapse inside the single-storey building. | |
Trains were still not running on Tuesday morning. | |
Station manager Brian Morgan, from the fire service, said: "There is a risk that the building could collapse across the railway line and neither ourselves or Network Rail are willing to take that risk for the public. | |
"In terms of fire-fighting we can only access three sides of the building, because the other side is actually on the railway line." | |
'Last few remnants' | |
There were due to be further investigations into the cause on Tuesday. | |
But Mr Morgan said because of the potential for collapse he imagined it would be "very difficult to establish the cause". | |
He added: "It's an industrial unit that's been split up into numerous little lock ups and individual units. | |
"The fire initially started (in the tyre depot) but because of the nature of it, it's actually affected a number of other units all the way through the industrial unit." | |
He said due to difficulties over access it was very difficult on Tuesday morning to put "the last few remnants" of the fire out. |