FIRE swept through a Basingstoke publishing company last Thursday.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service was called to the blaze at Macmillan Publishing on Houndmills industrial estate at 5.35pm.
A worker raised the alarm after noticing flames on the third floor of the five-storey building.
Watch manger Keith Jones from Basingstoke fire station said: “As we pulled up, staff were being evacuated from the building and we immediately checked to make sure everyone was safely out. A window on the third floor exploded with a ball of fire and so we knew we had quite a difficult job on our hands.
“Fire and smoke damage spread further through the building as many of the office doors had been left open."
Four tenders from Basingstoke, Tadley and Kingsclere, an aerial ladder and a special equipment unit were called in. Sixteen firefighters in breathing gear scaled the ladders to douse the flames.
At further 10 firefighters were needed to bring the blaze under control – five hours after it started. The cause of the fire is being investigated, but it is not thought to be suspicious.
The Houndmills site consists of two separate L-shaped buildings, the Macmillan building and the undamaged Tower building.
Macmillan spokeswoman Jo Webber said 175 people are employed at each building, but they were nearly empty when the fire broke out.
She said: “We have reviewed our health and safety procedures in the last six months and it put us in good stead when this happened. There were no casualties.”
She said the fire had destroyed up to 35 work stations, but due to employee holidays there will be enough free desks for people while the clean-up takes place and the company’s operations will be affected.
On Monday, the gutted site was visited by Macmillan’s chief, Annette Thomas, and company directors to assess the damage.
Ms Webber added: “We can’t speculate how long it will take to clean up. We are absolutely relieved that no one was hurt and pleased that measures put in place over the past months for evacuation proved worthwhile.
“And whatever it was that caused the fire, we will take measures to make sure it does not happen again.”
