A CLOUD of grey smoke spread across part of Blackburn last night when a blaze ripped through a pet food factory.

The fire started at around 9.05pm at Davies Pet Meat, in Davies Road, Whitebirk, and firefighters from Blackburn, Accrington and Great Harwood were called out to tackle the fire.

Davies Road was sealed off by the police for more than two hours as firefighters used an aerial platform ladder to pour water on to the factory's corrugated roof.

There was severe fire damage to a quarter of the single storey disused building and light fire damage to the rest.