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Gas blast panic at factory blaze

Sue Carr
22/10/2003

MORE than forty homes were evacuated on Monday night after fire tore through a factory storing flammable gas cylinders.

Children are believed to have started the inferno by setting fire to rubbish, dumped in the yard of the used tyre storage depot on Catherine Street East in Denton, which forced 150 people out of their homes.

But angry residents are now calling for the "rat-infested deathtrap" to be pulled down after the second major fire this year.

Six fire crews were called to the blaze - thought to be surrounding acetylene cylinders - and residents from Catherine Street and Elizabeth Street were immediately evacuated to Lakes Road Education Centre in Dukinfield and the Village Hotel in Hyde.

The same residents were evacuated earlier this year when fire erupted near to where the acetylene - a flammable gas used for welding metals - is stored.

An investigation on Tuesday ruled that although the blaze caused serious damage to the building, the cylinders contained carbon dioxide and presented no real risk to residents.

But Eleanor Stewart, of Catherine Street East, said: "The factory has been empty for at least five years - the cylinders aren't being used but they have just been left there.

"We have complained to the council but they say that because the gate is locked, it's private property and we don't know who owns it.

"It's going from bad to worse. It's infested with rats, people go fly-tipping there all the time - it's just used as a dumping ground.

"Kids play in there and it's a deathtrap but we've been told there's nothing we can do."

Firefighter Barry Jones explained: "Crews were called to the fire at around 7pm and found a cylinder but in the dark it was difficult to determine exactly what it was.

"Acetylene has to be cooled for 24 hours or it can go at any time with devastating effects and although the evacuation turned out to be a precautionary measure, this shows that all the plans in place are working."