TAVISTOCK?S new fire chief has praised firefighters, after they battled for several hours to avert a hugely hazardous blaze in the town on Monday night.
Thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused following the fire at RP and S Heywood Ltd in Tavistock?s Pixon Lane ? police are treating the blaze as arson.
Now the furious owner of the company, Eddie Heywood, has offered a £1,000 reward for information leading to a successful conviction.
A Volkswagen Golf car was destroyed by the fire, plus numerous tools and equipment locked in an adjacent building. An industrial steam cleaner valued at around £1,500 was stolen.
Tavistock fire station officer Tony Clark said crews were faced with what could have been a ?very dangerous? situation.
He said: ?We started off with a car fire. Then it appeared that the radiated heat caused the paint store within the workshop to go off. Aerosols were popping off and we then found compressed gas cylinders which added to the excitement.?
He said the workshop contained acetylene welding gases and oxygen, in addition to flammable paints and thinners.
?Acetylene can be particularly nasty. It doesn?t need oxygen to burn and if it gets too hot it can actually burn within the cylinder,? he said.
A diesel tank was engulfed by flames ? but more worrying was a second, larger diesel tank holding many thousands of gallons of fuel.
Firefighters from Princetown and Yelverton joined the Tavistock crew. The incident control vehicle and environmental unit from Plymouth were also called because of fears of a fuel spillage into the river.
Mr Clark said: ?It was dangerous, it was hazardous, but you take these risks on board and put in control measures to try and eliminate them.
?We had a very good team of guys who worked really well together. It was really a good job; I was delighted with them.?
Mr Heywood said the consequences of the fire were causing ?real aggravation? ? what he felt about the attack was ?not printable?.
He said it was the first time in more than 23 years at the Pixon Lane premises that this type of attack had occurred.
The damage had caused ?a good amount of money? ? he was waiting to meet insurance assessors before a figure could be agreed.
The company, which employs 18 people, runs 14 lorries, transporting a variety of goods, mainly aggregate and road building materials.
Mr Heywood said: ?We?re still working but we?ve lost tools. You can?t just buy them, you have to order them. When you?re in transport you do get problems. The building is all right, but it?s all the stuff that was inside. With 14 lorries we do carry a lot of spares.?
PC Simon Raeburn, of Tavistock Police, said the arson task force attended the scene and a board appealing for information has been erected on the perimeter fence.
He said: ?Someone entered the compound but at the moment we don?t know how. The barbed wire at the top of the compound at the front was cut ? a very heavy washer weighing about three or four hundredweight was stolen.
?Possibly they were going to lift it over the top but found it too heavy and got it through a hole in the fence.?
PC Raeburn said the car?s CD and speakers were stolen before the car was set on fire. He appealed to witnesses or anyone who might have been offered these type of items for sale to contact Tavistock CID on 08705 777444 or via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.