THE boss of a Burnley footwear firm today vowed to rebuild his business after it was ravaged by a mystery fire last night.

Fire chiefs and police were today investigating the cause of the blaze at Liftstep ladies' shoe manufacturers, Brun Terrace, Worsthorne.

Firefighters were called to the factory at 8pm following reports that it had exploded into flames.

Station Officer Paul Harvey said that as they drove down Brownside Lane flames were already shooting through the roof of the single-storey unit.

More than 40 firefighters from Burnley, Padiham, Nelson and Accrington were called to tackle the blaze as oxygen cylinders and a petrol store exploded.

The fire destroyed the 6,000 sq ft unit and its contents and took two hours to be brought under control.

Peter Duffy, who owns the company with Peter Witt, fought back tears as he surveyed the remains of his shattered business today.

He said: "I am going to have to set up again because the staff come first. We need this place replacing or we will have to temporarily relocate because we have a full order book. "We have to try to get the machinery up and running as soon as possible. We are waiting for insurers to assess the cost of the fire.

"Where as most places are struggling at this time of year, our niche is bridal shoes and we have orders for spring and Easter weddings."

Liftstep, which also has a base at The Glen, Waterfoot, was based in Rossendale Road until six years ago when it relocated to the converted mill premises at Worsthorne.

The company exports footwear, but the bulk of its business is with retailers in Britain. The Burnley base employs 26 people and a further 30 work at Waterfoot.

Firefighters used a special damage control unit to pump away polluted water straight into the foul sewer.

Mr Harvey said: "It was the first time we have used the unit which is paid for by the Environment Agency and was only installed in Burnley at the start of the month.

"We were damping down the premises until 3am and fire officers were back today with police to investigate the cause."

A pine furniture business was slightly affected by water damage but other businesses in adjacent units including a recycling centre and precision engineers were operating as normal today.

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