A catering company has been left counting the cost after a fire ripped through its Bradford warehouse, reducing it to a charred shell.

The Summerville Road building, the base of A1 Apna Catering, was destroyed by the fire which started shortly after midnight yesterday and took several hours to bring under control.

Fire crews fought against strong winds to prevent flames from blowing to neighbouring businesses and buildings, including Bradford Council’s Shearbridge Road depot which backs onto the warehouse.

Five engines from Bradford, Fairweather Green, Odsal, Shipley and Cleckheaton attended the fire after getting the call about 15 minutes after midnight.

On arriving they found flames rising out of the 20 x 50 metre, single storey building’s roof.

To help battle the blaze they called a further two “combined aerial rescue pumps,” new vehicles that was being used for the first time and which firefighters said helped prevent the fire from being much worse than it was.

Watch commander Giovanni Richetta, from Bradford station, said: “We deployed two of the new aerial units, one at the front of the building and one at the rear.

“The building was gutted, but because we had these appliances we managed to prevent it from spreading to neighbouring premises. The fire was coming through the roof.

“Things weren’t being helped by the wind and there was a real potential it could have spread to adjacent buildings. The firefighters on the scene had to work like Trojans to deal with it. They had great difficulty getting water to the site from any hydrants. It took them two or three attempts to get a good stream.”

Saleem Kader, who runs Bombay Stores, landlords of the building and other neighbouring properties, said: “It looks like a total loss of the building. Luckily it didn’t spread to neighbouring buildings – the firefighters did a very good job and managed to contain it.

“We’ve told our other tenants about the fire but it didn’t cause too much damage to any other businesses. The owners of the catering company are just working out what to do next.”

The cause of the fire is currently being investigated.