A poultry factory in Co Down was evacuated today after a fire broke out in an oven. Up to 40 firefighters were sent to the Moy Park plant near Moira, Co Down.
The blaze moved towards a roof space area before being brought under control and extinguished. No injuries were reported.
Group commander John Allen confirmed the blaze started accidentally, and said immediate safety precautions had limited the spread of flames.
"Fires in the food processing industry pose a number of difficulties, and we were concerned about how we would deal with this," he said. "But Moy Park implemented an emergency plan, they evacuated people and called us. We were able to attack the fire fairly quickly."
Although the entire building was smoke damaged, Mr Allen stressed the factory could have been destroyed. He added: "There's been so many of these buildings in the past where fire has wiped them out in 30 minutes."
