Tank blast fear

A fire in an acetylene welding cylinder caused a major evacuation at the Moss Lane Industrial Estate, Royton.

The fire started in a control valve as the equipment was being used at Howarth Brothers, the commercial vehicle company, just before 10am yesterday.

A 200-metre cordon was set up around the single storey commercial building off Shaw Road, although no homes were affected.

Firemen began cooling the equipment, fearing an explosion and were still on the scene this morning.

Four fire crews from Chadderton, Ashton and Hyde wore breathing equipment to douse the cylinder and the North-West Ambulance hazardous area response team (HART) vehicle attended, but stood down after an hour.