Burnt-out warehouse search in UK 'painfully slow'

UK fire crews are continuing their search for missing colleagues in a burnt-out warehouse tonight in what fire bosses have called an “immensely frustrating” operation.

Three men are still missing after the catastrophic blaze tore through the vegetable-packing warehouse in Warwickshire on Friday.

It was hoped that the search would be completed by midnight but fire chiefs today conceded that the search was going “painfully” slowly.

Search teams have so far only managed to enter 20 metres into the site – with 80 more to go.

Jon Hall, assistant chief officer from the local Fire and Rescue Service said: “We have got an area approximately the size of four football pitches.

“I have to tell you now that with the state the building is in and the conditions the crews are having to work in I am no longer going to give you a look forward to how long it will take.

“We have a few ideas about where they might be and we are working through the possibilities one by one.

“It looks like a total area of devastation.

“We are monitoring the situation minute by minute. The desire to see this through to the end is unstinted.”

Police spokesman, Paul Mason Brown, the commanding officer of the investigation, said that they had been able to confirm today that none of the warehouse workers had been stuck inside the building as the fire raged.

Locals had previously expressed fears that immigrant workers, who travel to the site in coaches each morning, may have been sleeping overnight in the warehouse when the fire struck.

Mr Mason Brown said: “We have been able to locate a list of 150 employees and we have spoken with every one of those 150 employees so we know they are accounted for. That is significant progress. It is good news.”

He did not know how many of them, if any, had been at the site when the fire broke out, but said they would be questioned about their whereabouts as the investigation progresses.

The search will now continue until the missing firefighters are found, said Glen Ranger, deputy chief fire officer from Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service.

He said: “Firefighters continue to be committed to the incident as they have been since Friday evening.

“We will continue to commit our firefighters to the investigation until we retrieve our colleagues from the building.”

Earlier today, firefighters from Stratford Fire Service visited the fire-ravaged shell of the warehouse to pay their respects.

They laid flowers at the scene and saluted their missing colleagues.