Fire ravaged a Haworth mill last night leaving most of the building gutted.

The top three floors of Ebor Mill, in Mytholmes, were destroyed during the blaze.

The fire raged for more than four hours at the mill, home to long-established company Airedale Springs.

Nearby cottages had to be evacuated, and constantly doused with water to keep them safe from igniting.

Firefighters also sprayed Airedale Springs’ single-storey office block, which stands next to the six-storey mill.

At the incident’s height there were ten fire appliances including two aerial ladders.

Airedale Springs, which employs 44 workers at the mill, has been in the building for many years.

The 65-year-old company makes springs for many businesses including Flymo and Bentley.

Firefighters from Keighley, Silsden, Shipley, Bingley and Bradford fought the blaze.

Crews from Keighley and Bradford were initially called to the Ebor Lane mill at 8.20pm.

Steve Moorhouse, manager of Keighley’s green watch, said more crews were summoned as soon as soon as they arrived.

He said: “There was a fire on the third floor, by three windows at the right-hand side.

“At that time it was confined to that floor, then after about an hour it seemed to go quickly to the other side.”

Mr Moorehouse said there was only enough space on the mill site to get one fire appliance to the side where the fire had started.

When the fire took hold of the whole building the vehicle, and firefighters, were pulled back to a safe distance.

Mr Moorehouse said: “We had to pull away. We thought the building was going to collapse.”

He said the focus was on saving the lower floors of the mill by spraying water at the blazing third floor.

The fire crews were particularly concerned about flammable acetylene tanks stored on the second floor.

This morning the walls of the mill were intact but the roof, windows and top three storeys had been destroyed.

* Pictures by Mark Pullen