Firefighters tackle blaze at Sterling industrial estate

Four fire engines were called after a vehicle caught fire inside the old Sterling Cables building today (Wednesday)

A FIRE broke out inside the old Sterling Cables building on Sterling industrial estate in Newbury at 1.40pm this afternoon (Wednesday).

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service dispatched four fire engines to the scene and put the fire out within 30 minutes.

The fire was caused when a vehicle, which was being worked on inside the building, caught fire.

Eyewitness James Monaghan, who works at Reveal Ltd next door said: “I looked out the window and saw white smoke bellowing out the building, I looked at it for a bit and thought it was just water, but I looked a bit more and saw it was more serious.

“I phoned the fire brigade, and by that time there was black smoke coming out of the front of the building.

“The fire brigade must have been here within 6 minutes. They used breathing equipment to get inside.”

The watch manager at Newbury Fire Station, Richard Young, said: “It was a vehicle fire inside the workshop.

“It appears they had been working on the vehicle (an old Range Rover), then left it and went to lunch and a spark must have set it alight.”

Two appliances from Newbury attended and one each from Reading and Hungerford.

Mr Young said the fire had been contained to the vehicle and that the building was just smoke logged.

No-one was in the building when the fire broke out and no-one was injured.

For more pictures, click on the link below, and for an eyewitness video taken by James Monaghan, click on the link above.