This ferocious fire with flames more than 50ft high reduced thousands of wooden pallets to ash at an industrial estate near Cleckheaton.

Firefighters were forced to back off as a number of liquid petroleum gas cylinders stacked in one corner of the yard ignited and exploded.

As many as 100 firefighters and operational staff from stations across the district, including Cleckheaton, Odsal, Bradford, Shipley, Dewsbury, Batley, Morley, Huddersfield and Rothwell, attended the incident at Hillside Works, off Whitehall Road West, near Chain Bar.

Divisional Officer Nigel Charlston said the weather conditions were ideal for the fire to take hold.

"It was warm and dry with not much breeze," he said. "The fire mainly involved pallets, but there were also gas cylinders exploding so we had to pull our men out.

"The pallets were stacked in a yard adjacent to buildings. Our efforts concentrated on keeping the fire from spreading."

Workers at the MID Motor Company, whose garage backs onto the yard where the pallets were stacked, were evacuated shortly after the fire started at 5.03pm.

Proprietor Ian Drury said: "I was sitting in the doorway and my mum was working in the office. She asked if the pallets were all right, as there was a lot of crackling. I looked through the office and saw the flames - about 50ft high. I just shouted: 'Call the fire brigade!'

"We had ten cars in the garage and had to push them out in case the workshop went up."

Mr Drury said the fire was so hot it melted fireproof paint in the garage's paint oven.

Mr Drury estimated that about £50,000 worth of pallets had been lost.

"The man they belong to makes them and stores them there - there were thousands," he said.

He praised the fire service for its swift action. It had saved his garage and his livelihood.

"The fire engines got here in five minutes and the garage is going to be OK," he said. "The firefighters did a great job in keeping it away."

The incident brought the area near Hunsworth almost to gridlock and the blaze could be seen from the M606 motorway and Cleckheaton. The cause is under investigation.