BREAKING NEWS Enormous fire at Jaguar Land Rover's Castle Bromwich car plant as firefighters rush to scene
The blaze broke out at the car firm's Castle Bromwich base in the Castle Vale area of Birmingham at about 8.15am this morning.
West Midlands Fire Service sent eight fire engines, three 4×4 brigade response vehicles and a hydraulic aerial platform to the scene on Chester Road.
A witness told BirminghamLive: 'There were huge flames and a lot of black smoke. The whole area smelt like as if plastic or rubber when it burns. There were lots of fire services sirens.'
And a West Midlands Fire Service spokesman said: 'Shortly before 8.15am on Tuesday, we responded to Chester Road in the Castle Vale area of Birmingham.
'Eight fire engines, three 4×4 brigade response vehicles and a hydraulic aerial platform are in attendance, crewed by around 50 firefighters.
'The attending crews are from Ward End, Sheldon, Aston, Perry Barr, Hay Mills, Highgate, Handsworth, Smethwick, and Solihull stations.
'This is a fire at a vehicle manufacturing plant. Crews wearing breathing apparatus are tackling the fire.'
In an update at 9.45am, the fire service added: 'The fire has been extinguished and was confirmed to be out shortly after 9.30am.
'Sprinklers have been deactivated. Firefighters will remain at the scene to extinguish hotspots whilst ventilation takes place.'
A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: 'We currently have a paramedic officer standing by supporting fire colleagues at a building fire on Chester Road, Castle Vale. There are no patients.'
The site began life as an airfield in 1909 and was used by the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and became an aircraft factory just before the Second World War.
More than 12,000 Spitfire planes were built there as well as Lancaster bombers, then the site was taken over by car body pressings company Fisher & Ludlow after the war.
This eventually became part of British Leyland before Jaguar took on the site in 1977 – and mass production of cars was carried out there until the end of last year.
The plant now operates as a paint shop for Jaguar's special vehicle operations (SVO), its sideline in producing limited edition, high-performance cars. This comes after the company invested £41million to make it the new home of SVO paint operations.
In March, Jaguar Land Rover revealed it was investing more than £450million in the plant with the aim of turning it into a world-class hub for aluminium cars.
The company is owned by India's Tata.
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