WORKERS fled from the Forbo Lancaster wall-coverings factory on St George's Quay when a machine caught fire yesterday morning (Wednesday).

A flash fire broke out inside an embossing machine just after 8am while operators were taking a break.

The blaze was contained within air ducts but the intense heat - reaching temperatures of 700 degrees - spread to other machinery.

Workers evacuated the area to escape clouds of choking smoke and fire crews from Lancaster and Morecambe soon had the blaze under control. They feared other machines could be damaged and Station Officer Ray Cassar said: "If we had put water straight in it would have buckled the machine - so we had to wait for it to cool down."

No-one was injured in the blaze which was extinguished around 10am.

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