A FIRE investigation is underway after a furniture warehouse in Whittlesey was severely damaged by a blaze last night.

At the height of the fire 42 firefighters were tackling the blaze at the Albermarle Wholesale warehouse in the Lattersley Trading Estate, Benwick Road. Six crews from the surrounding area were called to the fire at 10.05pm yesterday.

Fire investigation dogs were brought in from Northamptonshire to search for accelerants and a green petrol can was taken from the site by forensics experts.

When firefighters arrived they found the 100 by 40 metre warehouse, that supplies furniture for the catering and leisure industry, was well alight at one end of the building.

Flames erupted through the roof, which contained asbestos, during the fire that consumed a fifth of the warehouse with the rest being severely damaged by smoke.

Shortly after firefighters arrived the wall next to where the fire started partially collapsed possibly causing structural instability.

A fire service spokesman said that because a lot of water was needed, water from a lake at the back of the trading estate was used to supplement the fire hydrants at the site.

Due to the intensity of the fire the incident commander gave parts of the building for firefighters to concentrate on. Flames were brought under control in the early hours of today.

Mark Bennett-Tighe, station manager for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Crews did a superb job in preventing the fire spreading to the rest of the warehouse and managed to contain the fire to the section in which it started.

“This was very difficult to do, as the building was more or less open plan inside and contained lots of flammable furniture items, meaning that the fire was very intense and there was little to hold it back.”

No cause has been found yet.