BUSINESSES in East Lancashire today warned they would soon grind to a halt unless the grip on the region's petrol is loosened.

Emergency services have also axed non-essential journeys as many filling stations remained closed this morning after panic buying left most stations dry.

Leading firefighter Michael Lonsdale of Blackburn Fire Station said: "There will be no drills. Unless it is a fire safety critical situation we will not attend.

"As for diesel, we have a designated pump that has been put on one side at a local petrol station for use by the fire station. All our cars, vans and appliances run on diesel, only the light, portable pumps and the ventilation unit run on petrol."

The North West has been the worst affected with up to 1,000 filling stations running dry. Unleaded was the first to go but diesel is also under threat which would most harm East Lancashire's businesses.

Burnley today became a petrol-free zone with the remaining petrol stations in the area shutting up early this morning as they were drained of their last supplies.

Asda's petrol station, in Princess Way, opened at 7am today and was allowing people to buy a limit of £10 worth of petrol but the demand was so great the supply lasted just half an hour.

Emergency meetings to discuss ways of saving fuel were being held in businesses across the town, including at Burnley Borough Council.

Director of Council services at the Parker Lane Offices, David Brown, said: "We are meeting to assess the implications of the crisis on the delivery of council services and agree what actions we need to take immediately. "We will need to look at things like the shortage of fuel for council vehicles and assess what implications it will have on staff availability, whether there will be a sufficient number of people able to get to work to run the services.

"We will discuss car sharing and fuel conservation and whether any staff can work from home.

"One of the things we need to do urgently is check with our contractors. Biffa Waste Services is one of those and the advice we had yesterday was that they have a fairly good supply of fuel."

Andrea Pickery, manager of town-centre bakery shop Greggs, said: "Management are holding emergency meetings because we have got hundreds of shops.

"We are all right at the moment but where we have two deliveries normally it may have to be cut down to just one a day."

Mark Barnes, supervisor at the Burnley branch of MD Foods plc, a supplier of dairy products, said: "As a company we are all right as the deliveries coming in are getting through to us but the problem is the distribution.

"The milkmen who have diesel and petrol floats are having to cut down on their journeys and double up on their deliveries."

An ambulance attending an emergency call between two busy petrol stations was involved in a crash on route yesterday afternoon.

The Blackburn crew was on its way to an accident on Longsight Road where a motorcyclist had come off his bike which then set on fire, following a collision with a Discovery vehicle close to the Woodfield Garage near Mellor.

Fire crews arrived at the scene, but while the ambulance was making it's way to the accident spot it collided with a Fiat Tipo which was performing a U-turn in order to re-join the queue at the Royal Oak petrol station when the collision occurred, 200 yards from first accident spot.

The ambulance driver was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary suffering from shock and whiplash, but was not detained.

Longsight Road was blocked for an hour and a half following the accident.