Fire at Fox’s Biscuit plant

Six people were taken to hospital and production was temporarily stopped when a diesel storage tank exploded at a Fox’s Biscuit factory in the UK.

The incident happened at the plant on Wednesday as the tank was being drained and cleaned, the company said.

A spokesman for Fox’s Biscuits’ parent company, 2 Sisters Food Group, said a contractor had suffered burns to his legs following a spark in a diesel tank on the edge of the site.

“The individual’s burns are not believed to be life-threatening and he is now being assessed at hospital and our first priority is his welfare,” he said.

“All of our safety and emergency procedures were followed and the fire brigade attended the site as a precaution.”

Mel Bugler, acting managing director of Fox’s Biscuits, said there would be a “full investigation” into the blast.

The Fox’s Biscuits factory was saved from closure in July last year.

Northern Foods, which owned Fox’s Biscuits at the time, announced in 2008 it wanted to merge its plants in Batley and Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.

But the company said in 2011 the two plants, plus another in Kirkham, Lancashire, would remain open after a £27m investment.