THOUSANDS of litres of heating oil burst into flames at a Kidderminster factory with up to 15 employees working on the night shift inside.
No-one was hurt when the tank containing 4,000 litres of oil exploded at Home Express on Hoo Farm Industrial Estate when it overheated following a fire which started on a nearby pump due to an electrical fault.
Two Kidderminster fire crews rushed to the scene at 2.45am on Tuesday equipped with breathing apparatus, a thermal imaging camera and foam.
The tank ruptured into the factory's outer cavity wall which helped prevent the oil escaping into the drains and causing an environmental catastrophe.
"We stopped the fire spreading and confined the damage to the outside wall," said firefighter Warren Midgley.
"There were round about 10 to 15 people working in the building - the first they knew about the fire was the loud explosion of the tank splitting."
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