A FAMILY-run Asian bakery business was saved by firefighters after a dramatic blaze at its Burnley base.

Bosses at Tayyabah, in Gannow Lane, watched on in horror as flames spread from a pile of boxes and a delivery van towards their factory and offices.

The blaze was creeping towards a room housing the electrics when the fire service arrived shortly after 5pm on Wednesday and managed to stop it from spreading.

Omar Desai, operations manager at Tayyabah, which also has an office in Higher Eanam, Blackburn, said: “The fire service took nine minutes to arrive but it was the longest nine minutes of my life.

“It was quite windy at the time and you could see the fire spreading towards the building, we could have lost everything.

“We had just filled the van up with petrol that morning so the fuel tank exploded. It was so big the van jumped off the ground.”

Police closed off Gannow Lane for two hours while firefighters tackled the fire.

The business was open as usual this morning despite a section of the courtyard being cordoned off, with deliveries being carried out in an alternative van.

Shoaib Patel, general manager, said: “We have managed to carry on as normal but it could have been a lot worse.

“We’ll have to wait for a fire report now to see how it started and then deal with insurance, we’ve only been at these premises since last July so its a massive relief it isn’t worse.”

The company employs around 25 people at its Burnley site, who were all evacuated when the blaze was spotted by an employee who had gone into the yard to put some rubbish out.

Mr Desai: “Five minutes later and the whole building could have gone up, in some ways it was a lucky escape.”