MECHANICS tried to tackle a fire which broke out at a Burnley garage while they were welding a car.

But the blaze quickly spread into the roof timbers and firefighters from Burnley and Nelson spent more than three hours at the scene, fighting the fire and stripping tiles from the roof.

The blaze broke out yesterday afternoon while staff at Car-toon garage in Back Briercliffe Road were working on a car raised on an hydraulic ramp.

Co-director of the garage, Steve Lockyer, said: "As soon as it went up, we tried to put it out with the fire extinguishers and someone rang for the fire brigade. "There was no way we could put it out, so one of the lads tried to contain it while the others got the rest of the cars out of the garage."

Station officer Steve Cope, of Burnley fire station, said: "The car was up on the ramp and well alight when we got there. The fire quickly spread into the roof timbers.

"We tried to tackle the fire from the inside of the building at first, but it got into the timbers and the under-drawing which made it very awkward to get to."

Firefighters used axes to break the tiles from the roof so that the fire could be reached from the outside.

They spent more than two hours stripping tiles from the roof after the blaze was under control to make sure none of the timbers was still alight.

The blaze severely damaged a car and the inside of the garage and much of the building was left without a roof.

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