WORKERS at a Bury factory were evacuated when a machine fire spread to the roof.

Three fire crews tackled Sunday's (Oct 6) early morning blaze at the Manchester Road premises of plastic and rubber moulders Swintex.

No one was hurt but a firefighters had a lucky escape when a large chunk of ducting fell from the roof, narrowly missing him.

The alarm was raised at 2.45am when the machine fire spread to the roof ducting.

Sub officer Steve Simpson of Whitefield fire station said: "The incident involved a rubber processing machine which turns granulated rubber into a more solid substance.

"Some of the residue caught fire in the machinery and it spread into the extractor system, involving 30 metres of ducting at roof level."

"The fire destroyed about seven metres, quite a large ducting pipe."

The room which housed the machine was heavily smoke logged.

Several machines are thought to have been damaged after the company's sprinkler system activated. But the majority of damage was confined to the ducting.

Sub officer Simpson continued: "We used a thermal image camera to check the ducting out, to enable us to see any hot spots.

"There was quite a large plume of smoke which would have been seen for miles around during the day."

Commenting on the lucky escape by one of his colleagues, he explained: "A large section of ducting fell down during the operation and just missed him. We're talking about a chunk four metres long and one metre across."

The Whitefield crew was joined by two from Bury and a Rochdale-based specialist appliance emergency salvage tender.

Swintex is involved in the manufacture of traffic safety products and litter bins.

Some 15 firemen spent more than two hours at the scene.