WORKERS in waste paper recycling mill were evacuated when a fire broke out in a machine manufacturing tissue paper.

More than 20 firefighters were at Georgia-Pacific, formerly Fort Sterling, in Stubbins Lane, Stubbins, for more than six hours tackling several fires.

The fire started in a paper manufacturing machine in a four-storey high hangar.

Fire crews from Ramsbottom and Bacup were called at 5.30pm on Saturday and were oined by a Rawtenstall crew and the incident support unit from Accrington was relocated from a mill blaze in Haslingden.

Leading Firefighter Glenn Barrett, from Rawtenstall, said: "There was fly, a dust-type residue from the paper, all over the factory sometimes several feet deep and it has also got into the ducting.

"There were about five or six different seats of fire in the large hangar and the fire had also spread into the ducting and into the extraction unit. It then spread into other areas of the mill."

The mill was fitted with a sprinkler system which Sub Officer Alan Senior, from Ramsbottom, said contained the fires inside the hangar.

But he said the fly was very quick to ignite and smouldered for a time before catching fire.

Just when crews thought the fires were all out another would start in a different part of the large premises.

From midnight the crews were decreased to two and firefighters were still on site today because heat had been found in one of the panels. It was feared other fires might start.

The cause of the blaze is still under investigation but it is believed it was a fault in machinery.

A spokesman for Georgia-Pacific said: "The mill's fire procedure safely evacuated the building with no injuries to the mill's operatives.

"Lancashire Fire Services quickly brought the fire under control limiting damage."