The cause of a huge blaze that destroyed an old mill was today being investigated.

The flames engulfed the Victorian building in Harris Street, adjoining the historic Little Germany area on Saturday night.

Sixty firefighters from across the district battled through the night as the fire threatened to spread to other factories nearby.

And yesterday the building, owned by millionaire textile businessman Dilbag Singh, was demolished.

Bradford Station Officer Harvey Stewart praised the firefighters involved in the incident, saying it had been a "job well done".

"These are listed buildings and this could have caused multi-million pounds of damage. Any fire we get in the Little Germany area we need to move rapidly," he said.

The destroyed building was owned by Dilbag Cloth House Limited, one of Bradford's biggest textile companies.

The company was set up by Mr Singh who came to Britain 40 years ago with just £3 in his pocket.

Mr Singh's son Bobby said the building was empty and was due for demolition shortly to make way for a flagship office complex. The scheme would be unaffected.

When fire crews arrived at the scene, the bottom three floors of the four-storey mill building were on fire and flames were threatening to spread to a nearby building.

"We were going to attack the first building but then it exploded like a bomb," explained Mr Stewart, whose Bradford crew took the call from a passer-by at 6.45pm on Saturday.

"It was impossible to do anything with the building which was on fire, it was too late.

"We had to save the adjacent factory because it was in serious danger of igniting. The windows had already gone through with the heat.

"The flames were leaping across the street and licking the other windows. We worked really, really hard to save the opposite buildings."

Station commander for Bingley, Haworth and Ilkley Jeremy Hayhirst said the Bradford crews had called for back-up immediately.

He said: "Our plan of action was to try to save the surrounding buildings which were at risk.

"We created a water curtain from the bottom and from the top of the street to stop radiated heat getting to the other buildings.

"We couldn't put anybody down between the two buildings because of the heat so we used ground monitors and big jets which can stand on their own so nobody has to be with them."

Police closed roads leading to the factory and cleared the area of onlookers.

After the building was damped down yesterday, structural experts deemed it unsound and ordered its demolition.

Bobby Singh said there had been problems with vandals breaking into the building in recent weeks.

"Two weeks ago kids broke in and held a rave party there on a Saturday night. We boarded it up on Monday so it wouldn't happen again," he said.

"It was due to be knocked down but it does affect the value of the stone that we were going to sell. It doesn't affect our plans for the building."

Dilbag Cloth House Limited, which was listed among Yorkshire's top 100 companies and has earned Mr Singh a fortune of £18 million. It is one of the largest textile importers of its type in Britain.

The company relocated from the former woollen mill, built in 1887, 13 years ago.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said today officers were trying to establish the cause of the blaze.