SMOKE billowed into the sky as firefighters tackled an "awkward" fire in a tower at an asphalt yard.

The blaze broke out at Aggregate Industries' plant on the Chaddock Lane Industrial Estate in Kennedy Road, Astley, at around 4.30pm yesterday.

It was contained to a building housing a reservoir and a hopper used to pour warm bitumen into the back of lorries to take away for road repairs.

All the employees were evacuated as the building burned.

Crew manager Baz Hulme, who was the initial officer in charge, said: "There was quite a lot of smoke.

"The site was up and running when we got there.

"We made sure everybody was out. All persons were accounted for."

The aerial platform from Bolton Fire Station was used to reach the height require to douse the flames.

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Mr Hulme said: "It was a four-storey metal-framed building with wood insulation and wriggly tin (corrugated metal) covering.

"It was very awkward to gain access to the bits that were on fire.

"It was quite dangerous.

"Once we got the high pressure hose in there, it knocked it out very quickly.

"We didn't want the asphalt to catch on fire and we put up what we called a water curtain to prevent that.

"If we had had persons reported missing and we had had to commit firefighters in breathing apparatus that would have been extremely dangerous."

Crews from Atherton, Farnworth, Salford and Agecroft attended the incident alongside the hydraulic platform from Bolton Central, a command unit from Rochdale, the service's air unit and technical response unit and major rescue unit from Leigh.

Colleagues were in attendance overnight to keep an eye on the site with the use of thermal cameras and to dampen any hotspots.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.