Cause of tyre factory fire at Murfitts Industries in Lakenheath revealed after crews spend five hours at scene of blaze

The cause of a fire at a tyre factory has been revealed after crews spent five hours at the scene of the blaze.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 5.36pm yesterday to a fire at Murfitts Industries in Station Road, Lakenheath.

The blaze, which had spread from the floor below, was in the roof space of a building measuring 25m x 7m, which houses tyre rubber recycling equipment.

Firefighters used a 13.5m ladder, hose reel jets and thermal scanning equipment to tackle the fire.

A Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said a preliminary investigation was carried out last night and it established that the source of the fire was a piece of machinery.

There will be no further investigation.

One engine from Mildenhall, one from Brandon, one from Thetford, one from Methwold, one from Cambridge and a turntable ladder appliance from Cambridge, all attended.

Appliances left the scene at 10.30pm.

A spokesperson for Muriftts said: “A small fire was detected within one of our machines. It was immediately suppressed by the machine’s automatic systems and quickly extinguished.

“Our systems are directly connected to an alarm monitoring station and we thank the fire service for their prompt response.

“The fire had been contained within the machine and the fire service was able to bring down the temperature of the fire retardant roof panels.

“They gave us the all-clear last night and operations are back running as normal today.”