Firefighters have left the scene of a north Suffolk manufacturing plant following a fire which threatened gas tanks.

A 200m cordon was set up around an outdoor storage building at Oranmore Pre-Cast in Mundford Road, Brandon shortly before 5pm yesterday as crews from Brandon, Methwold, Thetford, Watton, Swaffham, East Harling, Downham Market, Littleport, Mildenhall, Soham battled the blaze.

The exclusion zone was set up because of the danger the two acetylene tanks could explode and threaten the safety of staff, although they had already been evacuated from offices around the building before fire crews had arrived.

Station manager Tim Edwards, based at King’s Lynn, said fire crews had largely extinguished the fire, except for one or two smaller blazes within the building, by 7pm, although crews would be maintaining a watching brief throughout the night to monitor the tanks.

He added thermal imaging cameras were constantly monitoring the temperature of the tanks and he was satisfied there was no imminent danger of explosion.

However, he said there had been an explosion while the crews were fighting the fire which may have been caused by a tank, adding the 200m cordon was a standard procedure for incidents involving acetylene because it was a flammable gas.