South Yorkshire firefighters tackled a huge fire at the site of the former DC Cook garage in Rotherham on Thursday evening.

Crews were called to the premises on Aldwarke Lane, which are currently unused, at 6.51pm. They found a single storey building around 50 metres square well alight and quickly escalated their response to eight appliances and an aerial ladder platform, plus two incident support units - a total of around 50 firefighters.

Their prompt actions helped to prevent the fire from spreading to a second building on the site. Area Manager Neil Hessell said: "Thanks to the actions of the firefighters, and the compartment layout of the buildings, the fire was restricted to the workshops area of the site. Rubbish in the workshop and the roof insultation were involved in the fire but it didn't spread to the former sales area."

An investigation into the cause of the fire will take place but it is believed that the ignition came in the area of the workshop where a significant amount of rubbish had accumulated.

By 9.00pm the incident had been reduced to three pumps and the remaining 15 or so firefighters were damping down the site. Nobody was injured in the blaze, although Aldwarke Lane and Fitzwilliam Lane were closed for a time on Thursday evening due to the surrounding smoke.

The crews involved were from Rotherham, Brampton, Mexborough, Darnall, Edlington, Maltby and Aston Park fire stations.