Pie workers flee blaze

Up to 200 members of staff at a Shropshire pie-making factory were forced to flee the building after a blaze broke out in a piece of machinery.

Staff at Pork Farms Limited Palethorpes, in Market Drayton, spent almost an hour outside the Maer Lane factory last night while firefighters dealt with the fire.

Crew manager Mark Smith, from Market Drayton fire station, said the fire had been caused by burning sausage rolls in a travelling oven.

He said: "We were given it as a commercial property fire and on arrival we were informed there was a fire involving one of the travelling ovens.

"The building had been evacuated because it was smoke-logged. It wasn't a severe fire, it was a small fire involving food stuff within the travelling oven.

"It was a sausage roll line. They run continuously. They cook as they are travelling along. I think some of them had fallen off, lodged in part of the machine, overheated and caught fire.

"We were there for about an hour-and-a-half."

Mr Smith said between 100 and 200 people were forced to leave the building after the blaze broke out.

"The fire alarms had operated so they evacuated the building. We just had to deal with the fire then they were let back into the factory," he added.

A company spokeswoman said: "A small fire inside oven number four was identified at 8.15pm, which was immediately isolated.

"The fire department was called and staff evacuated from the premises immediately as a matter of standard safety procedure. The fire was quickly extinguished and normal working conditions restored by 9.30pm."