A FIRE at an historic Bradford mill flared up so quickly that it took firefighters by surprise just as they thought they had it under control, a review has found.

Fire service commanders deployed about 50 firefighters inside Drummond Mill in Lumb Lane, Manningham, during a four-hour "offensive" operation on January 28 to put out a fire in the basement, which was packed with flammable goods including cardboard boxes.

A review of what happened has concluded that the fire broke through the basement so rapidly that crews had to quickly pull out and abandon attempts to save the listed building.

Crews instead had to focus on "defensive" firefighting to save nearby shops and restaurants in Lumb Lane.

Martin Speed, Bradford district commander, said that in 27 years he had witnessed fire spreading as quickly on only one other occasion.

"Once it had broken out of the basement it started to spread much more rapidly."

He added: "The fire spread was exceptional. At times it was spreading about as fast as you can walk.

"The fire spread reached 'walking pace' about half an hour after we removed crews from the basement."

The review also concluded that communications between sector commanders might have been better had extra "runners" been used to pass information verbally between each sector of the huge mill.

The sheer size of the operation - with more than 120 firefighters involved - meant that there was a great deal of radio traffic which made it difficult for sectors to communicate with one another.

Commanders who conducted the review said that crews had tried but failed to reach the seat of the fire which was in the middle of the large basement.

The first crews at the scene had tried to clear stock from the basement to get to the fire.

"Making progress through it was very difficult as there was zero visibility," said Mr Speed.

"Crews had to physically move and climb over boxes (stock) in order to make progress and this had to be done in zero visibility and in hot conditions."

The cause of the fire is still being investigated by the fire service and by five teams working on behalf of different insurers.

Mr Speed praised fire crews, saying they could not have done any more.

"The effort put in by this Brigade's firefighters was immense and really impressive.

"We committed 50 breathing apparatus (BA) teams, over a number of hours, in order to try extinguish this fire and save the building.

"Fifty BA teams is a highly unusual number; I’ve never been to a job where we have committed that many in 27 years in this job.

"It's a good indication of how much effort went into saving this building.

"Basement fires are always hard. Visibility is zero and the heat has nowhere to go so it’s physically punishing.

"This basement fire was particularly difficult as it was a large basement and the seat of fire was in a very difficult to reach part of it.

"Numerous crews made numerous attempts to close on the seat of fire and put it out. I was proud of them, we all were."

Mr Speed said the sudden spread of the fire had taken commanders by surprise.

"We were taken by surprise. Right up to where the decision was made to go defensive, we thought we were going to put the thing out."

"A couple of times we thought we have got this now."

The decision to stop trying to put the fire out was based on risk factors and listening to what BA wearers were saying, he said.

Mr Speed said that two 'debriefs' had taken place so far, with a third due in May with police officers.

"Two major debriefs is unusual and is due to the sheer size of the fire, the length of time we spent fighting it and the length of time it ran for. It was what we call a protracted incident."

Meanwhile, demolition crews are continuing to clean up the former mill site.

A spokesman for the owner of the site said demolition contractors were proceeding with their work and "will probably be on site till the autumn as it is a significant undertaking".