A FIRE chief told today how he would not let any firefighters into the blazing Mayfield Chicks factory because it was too dangerous.

Station Officer Barry Ryan, of Rawtenstall, said the building in Haslingden was built in such a way that prevented his firefighters tackling the blaze from the inside.

The building will be demolished as the firm's 45 workers anxiously wait for news of their futures.

Mr Ryan said if his firefighters had gone inside they would have risked their lives for no reason -- two firefighters had died in a similar blaze in another part of the country when a roof collapsed.

Mr Ryan said that a worker had raised the alarm after he had spotted a fire in one corner of the building.

He said: "When we got there the fire was going quite well. We knew the building was constructed with sandwich panels -- building materials which are two sheets of metal fabric sandwiching layers of polystyrene.

"The problem with this type of construction is that the polystyrene gives off poisonous toxic fumes and once a fire gets into it you can't put it out.

"You not only can't see it because the polystyrene is sandwiched between the metal but you can't get water to it.

"The hatcheries are made with the same panels so we had to fight the fire from the outside.

"The fire took hold really quickly because the sandwich panels promote rapid fire spread and once they're involved the building could collapse at anytime.

"It was just too dangerous to go into the building -- two firefighters died at a fire at a Sun Valley plant a few years ago when the roof prematurely collapsed on them.

"We're investigating the cause of the fire and that's ongoing, we should know by the middle of next week.

"The building has had it and I would imagine they would be looking at what they can and can't salvage."

A worker, who did not want to be named, said staff would know about the future of their jobs at a meeting tomorrow .

Matthew Porter, construction manager for Andrew Conley Demolition, Accrington, said yesterday: "It's a full demolition job, at the moment we've been instructed to make safe and we're helping the fire service tackle a few pockets of fire at the back of the building."