WORKERS face a bleak Christmas after their factory was destroyed in an early morning blaze.

Fire swept through the single- storey factory of Molygran and Co in Lodge Road, off Outwood Road. At its height, the blaze was tackled by around 30 firefighters but they were unable to save the building.

Three staff escaped from the premises after the fire broke out in a production wing just before 4am yesterday. It is understood they had tried to put out the blaze with fire extinguishers but were forced to flee.

Shocked managing director Miss Ingrid Hitchon was visibly upset as she stood outside her fire-ravaged factory just hours after the blaze. The company employs a 15-strong workforce.

She said: "At this stage, I cannot put a value on the loss of the factory. I will be talking to my insurers later on. We had been very busy.

"It's just too early to say what is going to happen or what we can do. But we do have separate offices. We've been trading in Radcliffe since 1981 and have had our premises here in Lodge Road since 1990."

Firefighters concentrated their efforts on safeguarding two adjoining buildings. The intense heat buckled the corrugated steel exterior.

Station Officer Paul Myerscough of Bury Fire Service said: "When we arrived, the roof of the factory unit was well alight. There was very little we could do other than prevent the fire from spreading to two neighbouring units on either side of the factory".

Molygran manufactures polystyrene packaging and insulation materials. The blaze caused the closure of Lodge Road for a number of hours and police were forced to set up diversions for motorists.