A Burley-in-Wharfedale business which suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage from a carpet showroom fire last weekend has vowed to keep on trading.

The blaze which swept through Greenholme Mills Carpet Centre in the early hours of Saturday, June 14 is believed to have destroyed around £70,000 worth of carpets, samples and display equipment.

The fire, which took 60 firefighters three hours to control, gutted the firm's showroom building and office, consuming all of its customer records, and caused smoke damage to its sofa and bed centre.

Two other businesses were also affected - the adjacent Marsland Timber yard, whose DIY stock was smoke damaged, and Greenholme Garage, which sits directly opposite the showroom and had all of its power cut off.

But they have all voiced their determination to get back to 'business as usual' - and expressed thanks for the messages of support and offers of assistance they've received.

Carpet Centre director John Harker, 60, arrived with his co-director Chris Smith at the scene at around 1am on Saturday only to have to stand back and watch his showroom go up in flames.

Looking over a melted computer lying in the blackened shell of what was once his office, through to the charred metal and ashes of the now roofless showroom itself, he said: "It just completely burned the whole place down.

"The showroom was full of carpets on stands, and we've lost £70,000 worth of stock.

"But it happens, you can't cry about it like the footballers do. We're doing okay, everybody's digging in and we might even end up with a better showroom in the end, although it may be a bit of a pain in the meantime.

"Losing the office means we've lost all the materials and papers from eight years of business, so it's a matter of customer loyalty and us using our memories, plus a bit of guess work, to put it all back together again.

"But we've contacted the insurers, we're still trading and people have enough respect for us to keep coming back. Everyone's been very supportive - we were selling from out in the car park on Saturday and doing good business, too!

"We have a temporary office coming, our suppliers are sending us replacement stock and new samples and we are turning our first building back into a showroom so we can focus on the carpet business, which is our real business."

Fire investigators believe an electrical fault caused the fire.

The firm, which is run by a team of five staff and which employs ten fitters, is now clearing its damaged sofas and beds from the building where it actually started up in eight years ago, before it expanded into the next door property.

Mr Harker and his colleagues now intend to use the original building for its core business once again until a new showroom can be built.

The owner of Greenholme Garage, David Jack, meanwhile, is still waiting for his electricity and gas to be reconnected. Mr Jack, of Baildon has also had to lay off two of his five-strong team until the business re-opens.

He was called to the blaze, which fire investigators believe was started by an electrical fault, at 2am - and believes it was only the garage's metal shutters which saved it from being gutted.

He said: "Although our building hasn't gone up we have no power or anything, it's quite dire.

"There's water everywhere too, from them dampening down the fire. But all being well we'll be open for business as usual in two weeks - we could be ready in one week but we might as well paint the place while we're at it.

"You have just to keep going. We'd like to ask our customers to please bear with us and also to thank everyone who's helped us, we've had some good support from the shops in the village and other businesses, even to the point of being given some free fish and chips."

Staff at Marsland Timber, meanwhile, said the business was up and running again as normal.