Ingrow Corn Mill, one of West Yorkshire's few surviving water-powered corn mills, has been gutted by fire.

Eye witnesses say flames leapt up to 30 feet in the air as the fire took hold of the three-storey building which has stood derelict for many years. Houses near the burning building were evacuated.

Around 50 firefighters from Keighley, Silsden, Haworth, Bingley, Shipley and Bradford fought the blaze after the alarm was raised at 12.53pm on Tuesday.

Onlookers were moved away because of fears the building would collapse and others watched on from the attic windows of nearby houses.

Police sealed off roads around the scene as eight pumps and three specialist appliances used six jets and a turntable ladder to bring the flames under control. A mobile incident room was also set up.

Clouds of smoke fanned into the air as a firefighter wearing breathing apparatus doused the flames from above. The weight of the water eventually caused the roof to fall in.

Operations were initially hampered because the fire was just feet away from other houses and a number of timber garages. They had to be dampened down before firefighters could tackle the blaze.

Firefighters were there well into the night carrying out investigations after the building was declared safe by a Bradford council structural engineer.

Keighley Assistant Divisional Fire Officer John Davies says the cause of the fire is not yet known although children had been seen around the building at the time the alarm was raised.

There has been a building on the site since 1612. It was used as a paper mill until 1801 and originally powered by a water wheel.

The corn mill dates from around the 1840s. The mill was later extended and a chimney added in 1841, when steam power came into fashion. The chimney was pulled down in 1918.

The building, one of the first in Ingrow, has gradually been surrounded by housing. The mill dam, stream and water wheel have long disappeared but many of the original features remain, including the flagged and cobbled track leading from Ingrow Lane.

The shocked owner of the building, David Tea, landlord of the Globe Inn in Parkwood Street, watched helplessly. He told the Keighley News that the building, which he has owned since 1987, had been empty for some time. It had previously been rented out as a joiner's shop but Mr Tea had closed the building because of escalating insurance costs. The building was for sale for £100,000.

In March 1996 Mr Tea won planning permission for a £350,000 conversion of the property into low-cost bedsits and flats.

"The building was not insured," he says. "I don't know what I am going to do now. I have already spent £10,000 in architects' fees and I was hoping to get a grant to be able to convert the building. It looks like it will have to come down and I will only be able to sell it for building land now."

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