Gutted warehouse lacked sprinklers

The company which owns the Warwickshire warehouse which went up in flames on Friday has confirmed no sprinklers were fitted.One firefighter, Ian Reid, was killed while fighting the blaze at the vegetable packing warehouse in Atherstone-On-Stour.Efforts to find three others, believed dead, are faltering amid fears the building could collapse.Avnish Malde, a director of Wealmoor Atherstone Limited, the company which owns the warehouse, has confirmed a sprinkler system had not been installed: "There were plans to put one in place when we took over the business in August, but unfortunately that hadn't been carried out."Mr Malde has also responded to reports staff had been sleeping in the building."I'm not aware of that. It is completely against company policy," he said.More than 100 specially trained urban search and rescue firefighters have begun the task of locating the missing firefighters.They have been named locally as Ashley Stephens, 21, John Averis, 27, and 24-year-old Darren Yates-Badley.The fiancee of one of them on Sunday laid flowers outside the fire station where he was based - and paid her own tribute. "You're a hero babe", she wrote on the accompanying card.Chief officers said the search for the three men could take at least 36 hours and teams may need to shore up the building in Warwickshire before probing the more dangerous parts.The tactics the firefighters used to tackle the blaze will be investigated, and Warwickshire police said the fire would be treated as suspicious until its cause was established.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

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ITN | November 4, 2007

Tags:. .dead. .sunday. .missing. .investigated. .building