HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused by a fire at an Accrington furniture business.

Bosses at Pioneer Contract Furniture on Horne Lane are 'devastated’ after the blaze which took place in their woodwork part of their business on Tuesday night at 9.45pm.

More than 30 firefighters and six crews attended the scene and by 1am there were three crews who stayed to dampen down the remains of the blaze.

Claire-Odette Sinfield, joint managing director, said: “It is heartbreaking for us as we have been here for 15 years and have not had anything like this before.

“We employ 36 people and 15 of them are in the woodwork part and we are just waiting until we get told we can go back in there to see what we can do.

“There are skilled joiners there yet some of them are going to have a brush in their hands to clear up.

“We had a massive job going to a hotel in Jersey but it will be affected so we are talking to them to see if we can get an extra week as we want to the get the job done and we cannot afford to lose it.

“We are a family-run business and you don’t think anything would happen with the concrete floors but we are just lucky it did not spread.

“We don’t know how the fire started in the extractor fans whether it was the embers of some work from yesterday or even if it was a firework as there will have had to have been a spark to it.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Pioneer supply bespoke furniture to restaurants, hotels, fast food outlets and golf courses and Claire has praised the work of firefighters for getting the blaze under control.

She said: “We have watched the CCTV and they have cut through the roller-shutters and then attacked it from different angles of the building.

“They have also come in the morning to give the building back to us so we are really thankful for what they have done.

“It could have been much worse and spread and we are just glad that no-one was hurt.”

Claire says that they are looking to move machinery to their metal shop to keep the business working.