Workers evacuated as fire fighters battle to extinguish fire at Anglo Beef Processors

Hundreds of food manufacturing workers were evacuated as 20 firefighters battled to extinguish a fire at a meat processing site in Shropshire last week (August 3).

Three fire engines were called after the fire started in the roof of the Anglo Beef Processors building in Battlefield, Shrewsbury, at 1.18pm.

Around 400 workers were evacuated from the building and no one was hurt.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated

Shropshire Fire Services’ deputy chief fire officer John Redmond told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “Initial investigations suggest it was a result of contractors working on the roof.

“We left the incident at 17.26 so it took us four hours to control the incident and make the premises safe.”

Normal production resumes

Ray Johnston, general manager of the plant told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “There was no major structural damage. It was all precautionary. Production is continuing as normal.”

Fire fighters used specialist thermal imaging cameras (TICs) to locate the source of the fire.

Redmond explained: “There are no openings in a roof so the high build up of heat fills the space with smoke and toxic gas, which makes it hard to locate the source of the fire. TIC picks up the thermal image of the fire in the roof space.”