More than 30 firefighters today dealt with a blaze at a Suffolk grain company.

Fire broke out at Muntons’ Cedars Maltings, Needham Road, Stowmarket, at about 4.37am.

Crews from Stowmarket, Needham Market, Elmswell, two from Princes St, Ipswich, the command unit and support pump from Ixworth and the aerial appliance from Bury St Edmunds were sent to the scene.

A fire and rescue service spokesman said the fire was confined to a grain storage and process machinery area on the ground and second floors of a building.

By 6am the fire was out and work was taking place to ventilate the building and remove machinery from it.

Muntons’ Manufacturing and Sustainability Director Nigel Davies said the safety of employees was the company’s “biggest priority”.

He said: “Muntons has had a small fire at its Stowmarket site in the mill. This is an exceptional incident and is not affecting normal operations at our Stowmarket site. The fire was quickly contained and restricted to one small part of one process line.”

“Initial investigations have shown that the fire started in product cooling equipment in our mill. It seems that a small amount of grain material started to smoulder and caused an isolated fire in that equipment.

“There was no damage to any other part of the plant in the mill and no smoke damage. The mill and all the other plant at Muntons is continuing to function as normal today with just this one process line down for repair after the fire.”

Cedar Maltings is the headquarters of the Muntons Group, which has been producing malt and malted ingredients for over 90 years, since it was established in 1921.

The company supplies malts, malt extracts, flours and flakes to the food and drinks industry.

The Stowmarket site is equipped with kilns producing a full range of ale, lager and food malts exported in sacks and containers across the world.