Investigation begins into Wimblington factory blaze

An inquiry has now been given the go-ahead to start following a fire which badly damaged a plastics factory in Wimblington, Cambridgeshire last Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters were called to Plasgran in Manea Road just after 3pm and still remained at the scene over 16 hours later as they attempted to extinguish the flames.

A number of roads in the area were closed until around lunchtime on the Thursday, as the fire service worked through the night in order to tackle the fire.

The 75 firefighters on duty, with their eight appliances, managed to prevent the fire from spreading to other properties in the vicinity and by 11pm the situation was described as being under control.

The fire was initially reported by workers who were having a break when they noticed that a unit had been ignited.

The owner of the factory, Carl Waters, attended the scene with his father-in-law, former councillor Pop Jolley, who came to see how much damage had been done to the premises.

Steve Robinson, the incident commander of Cambridgeshire Fire Service, said the building, which was filled with plastic material, was now a total loss and that the cause of the blaze is now under investigation.