A major blaze at a Shipley scrapyard involved up to 20 cars and its two wagons – leading to fears that oxygen cylinders might explode.

Fire crews from Shipley, Idle, Bradford and Rawdon, were called to Shipley Auto Spares in Leeds Road shortly before 9.30am yesterday after the alarm was raised by members of the public who saw plumes of black smoke fill the sky.

Firefighters discovered as many as 20 gas cylinders stacked up against a fence prompting concern that they posed a risk to the nearby railway line.

Watch Commander Dave Jones, of Shipley fire station, said the fire was believed to have been caused by the use of hot cutting equipment and initially involved five cars.

All 20 cars and two wagons were were destroyed.

A West Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokesman said it deployed its Hazardous Area Response Team but that was stood down at about 10.30am when it was confirmed there had been no injuries and there was no risk to public health.

A nearby McDonalds and Aldi remained open throughout.

Mr Jones said: “There were plumes and plumes of black smoke and the scrapyard was locked with the gates all chained up.

“When we got there the cars were on fire and some oxygen cylinders were making a popping sound so we cooled them down.”

No-one at the scrapyard could be contacted by the Telegraph & Argus last night.