Factory blaze under investigation (From Keighley News)

Factory blaze under investigation

9:37am Sunday 14th October 2012 in News By David Knights

Police are probing the cause of a fire last night at a lamp and wick factory in Keighley.

Sprinklers stopped the fire spreading beyond a storage area in the mill building off Worth Way.

Water from the sprinklers damaged lamps manufactured by the long-established company, Hattersley Aladdin Ltd.

Firefighters were alerted at about 8.45pm and when they reached the building the fire was out.

The fire had started in a pile of boxes on top of shelving, and a piece of glass was missing from the roof immediately above.

Anthony Joint, Hattersley's finance director, said the cause of the fire was as yet unknown.

He said police and fire investigators were due to return to the building today to continue their probe.

Mr Joint said the fire would not affect production at the company, which employs 30 workers at the Greengates Road premises.

He said: "It was the sprinklers that put the fire out. It was already out by the time the fire brigade got here.

"They said to me that if it hadn't been for the sprinklers there wouldn't have been a building left."

Hattersley Aladdin, originally Hattersley (Narrow Fabrics), is a major manufacturers of wicks for paraffin lamps, and webbing, bindings and braids for a variety of end products.

Under the long-established Aladdin name the company assembles brass lamps using its own wicks.

Hattersley Aladdin's parent company was the famous Keighley engineering firm George Hattersley, which was started in 1789.