News

Specialist rescue crews are continuing their "inch by inch" search of a warehouse owned by vegetable packing and distribution firm Wealmoor Atherstone, which was devastated by fire on Friday evening.

The warehouse at Atherstone-on-Stour in Warwickshire collapsed in a blaze that Warwickshire Police chief superintendent Paul Mason Brown described as "suspicious" because it was unexplained.

One part-time retained firefighter, Ian Reid, was pronounced dead after the blaze. Three of his colleagues remain missing.

Wealmoor is a privately owned supplier and packer of exotic fruit and vegetables, which supplies 60 product lines sourced from 55 countries to the UK's leading supermarkets.

The firm's headquarters are in Hayes, Middlesex, near Heathrow Airport. It employs around 300 people at Atherstone-on-Stour.

Wealmoor director Avish Malde revealed that there was no sprinkler system at the vegetable-packing warehouse, but plans were in place to install one.

He said the firm was co-operating fully with the fire service and the police.

Stephen Haynes, assistant county fire officer for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue, said firefighters worked under "extremely testing and difficult circumstances" to extinguish the fire.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue assistant county officer Jon Hall said nine teams, each of around 12 specially trained urban search and rescue firefighters, were using specialist digging equipment and cameras to search the building in conjunction with Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Hall said there was a 36-hour plan to work through the whole building, which included production, storage and administration areas.

A Fire Brigades Union spokesman said the organisation was devastated by the loss of a colleague and deeply concerned about the three missing firefighters.

"Our officers are concentrating on getting their colleagues out with as much dignity as possible," he said.