Firefighters were called out just after 3am on Saturday, August 29 to fight a blaze at the Orchard Industrial Estate South on Lower Road in Kingsbridge.

Crews were called in from Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Ivybridge, Salcombe, Modbury, Kingston, Greenbank and Totnes.

At it’s height there were 10 pumping appliances along with specialist appliances, eight crew equipped with breathing apparatus and two attack jets.

A spokesperson commented: “What initially started as a report of a smell of smoke in Kingsbridge quickly turned into as large fire leading to additional assistance being required.”

Teams with breathing apparatus fought the fire from the inside and an aerial platform was bought in to attack the fire from above.

Smoke continued to billow from the roof and began spreading towards neighbouring units but this was bought under control and the neighbouring units suffered only smoke and water damage.

After a long, rainy morning and plenty of hard work from all the firefighters involved the fire was eventually bought under control.

Relief crews from other stations were then sent in to take over.

The fire was in a two-storey commercial property and was the middle industrial unit of a row.

It was 80 per cent damaged by fire and 100 per cent damaged by smoke.

By 7am and the incident was scaled back to four pumping units to dampen down the hotspots.

The origin of the fire is thought to be accidental.