A FACTORY blaze in St Neots in the early hours of Friday morning (Sept 26) saw a hazardous materials unit scrambled. However firefighters acted quickly to prevent risk to public health and extinguished the fire at PhotoFabrication Ltd, in Cromwell Road. S

A FACTORY blaze in St Neots in the early hours of Friday morning (Sept 26) saw a hazardous materials unit scrambled.

However firefighters acted quickly to prevent risk to public health and extinguished the fire at PhotoFabrication Ltd, in Cromwell Road.

Smoke was spotted coming from the factory by a member of the public at about 2.40am. Four fire engines, police and a hazardous materials unit attended the scene.

Police closed Cromwell Road while the fire service assessed whether there was a risk to the public.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus located the fire in a piece of machinery in a room at the rear of the property and spent two hours putting the fire out.

The machine, used for cleaning metal, was destroyed and the room it was in was severely fire-damaged.

Police reopened Cromwell Road at 4.30am and the fire was fully put out at 4.50am.

Nick Foster, incident commander for the fire service, said: "Crews did a great job in locating the fire so quickly - because of this they were able to stop it from spreading and affecting the rest of the building.

"The hazardous materials unit was deployed as a there are a number of chemicals stored on the site, but because we were quickly able to get to the location of the fire, there was no threat to public safety."

A fire investigation is under way but the cause is not thought to have been deliberate.