THE owner of a Louth printing firm says it will cost millions of pounds to get his factory up and running again after it was gutted by fire yesterday.
Today, Neville Barker, who owns Mono-Poly Printers Ltd, on Bolingbroke Road, is counting the cost of the blaze, which broke out at 9.20am, as reported on www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk
His successful business, which opened on Fairfield Industrial Estate in 2006 after moving from Alford, Lincolnshire, employs 15 people – some of which are family members.
Martin Gray, a spokesman for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue confirmed that ten crews attended the scene to bring the flames under control, after three reinforcements from Humberside Fire and Rescue were called in to help.
Even after the flames were extinguished at about 11.45am, fire service personnel were expecting to remain on the scene for up to 12 hours to continue damping down the building.
Mr Gray said it was believed the blaze had started as a result of ink vapours being ignited by an electric motor in the printing unit, causing 100 per cent damage to the building.
Mr Barker said the incident had left him devastated, but added he was glad no one was hurt as a result of the blaze. He said: "I have no idea how long it will be until my business is back up and running.
"My biggest worry is we will lose customers as we are unable to do any work."
According to Mr Barker, two of the printing machines damaged in the fire alone will cost about a million pounds each to replace.
He said: "I have to now sit down with our insurance company and go through everything. We are talking millions of pounds to fix all this."
The blow came after the firm's staff had just celebrated their best month for sales in the business' history.
He said: "For all this to follow after such a good start to the year is very upsetting.
"There will be no work for any of my employees for a while, as this is the only factory we have – my son and son-in-law also work here, so for our family it will now be a struggle for income.
"We don't usually work on a weekend, but we are that busy at the moment I brought in two staff members to do a Sunday shift.
"Luckily, they got out and managed to call the fire brigade."
Andrew Winn, of Alford, was one of the two workers in the factory when the fire started.
He said: "Myself and another colleague tried to extinguish the fire on one of the printing machines, but it was too much.
"We just got out quick and called for help."
