A BURY businessman is offering a £5,000 reward after firebugs destroyed 80 cars in a devastating arson attack at his salvage yard.

At its height,15 firefighters fought the fierce blaze at the premises of RMS in Tile Street.

And they were initially forced to tackle the outbreak from behind cars after a series of small explosions rocked the site.

The flames spread to the neighbouring premises of A1 Breakers and engulfed four vans.

This was the tenth in a series of damaging fires at the RMS yard in only a year.

Now fed-up owner Mr Ray Stansfield is offering the reward to trap the person or persons responsible for the latest arson attack.

"The fire was started in my own yard and then spread to A1, despite the fact there is a dividing fence between us.

"I had 80 cars destroyed in the yard, which holds around 600 vehicles."

He added: "I've lost about £50,000. These were late accident damage vehicles."

The blaze was spread over a number of sections of the yard, prompting spectulation there may have been several seats of fire.

Two fire crews from Bury and a third from Heywood fought the blaze which broke out at 10.50pm on Thursday (Sept 16).

A lighting crew was summoned from Ramsbottom to aid colleagues who initially tackled the fire in pitch darkness.

Bury-based Sub Officer Brian Nuttall said: "The blaze was quite intense. Because of the explosions, obviously we had to start fighting the fire from behind other cars for protection."

The blasts were caused by overheating tyres, petrol tanks and hydraulic gear.

Sub Officer Nuttall continued: "Throughout, the heat was intense. There were also difficulties regarding access.

"We'd to use ladders to climb over the fence to get into the yard. And we also had to clamber over cars to get to the scene of the fire and to lay our jets in different positions."

The blaze was eventually extinguished after three hours.

Meanwhile, Mr Stansfield hopes the offer of the £5,000 will trap the culprits.

"The reward is for information leading to arrests and convictions of those responsible," he said.

"I'm sure somebody knows something," added Mr Stansfield who has invested more than £300,000 in the business since he acquired it three years ago.

Anyone with information about the fire should ring Bury CID on 856 8150.

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