WORKERS at an industrial estate in Dorchester had to be evacuated after a fire broke out in a workshop.

Tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused after the fire spread through several industrial units in Dorchester..

The fire was believed to have been caused by welding operations at a garage workshop and caused damage to four buildings at the Casterbridge Industrial Estate.

Five fire crews attended the fire, which broke out on Tuesday night, and spent nearly an hour tackling the flames.

A 200m cordon was set up as there were concerns for LPG gas cylinders on the industrial estate but none of them were effected by the fire.

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service said they had to evacuate the few remaining workers who were still at the industrial estate when the fire broke out.

Workers at the estate said the blaze was caused by welding at TTR Recovery and Transport but nobody was hurt in the fire.

Owner of the neighbouring store Mike Matthews, from Empire Fine Art, saw his unit full of furniture go up in smoke but says he expects it all to be covered by insurance.

He said: “We were coming back from London and came here when the fire service were already here.

“It was fairly full of furniture, wood and cardboard and when that all went up they couldn’t get in there – that’s why they couldn’t put it out.

“It should be covered by the insurance but that’s our only store so it’s going to be interesting now.”

Stuart Downton, from building and construction company S&R Downton which has premises on the other side of the unit where the fire started, said they had two campervans and around half their work equipment damaged in the blaze. He said: “Apparently they were welding in the workshop next door and something caught fire.

“We were coming down from town and we pulled in and saw the flames up the side of the unit.

“We opened the doors of our unit and got what we could out.

“We got one of two campervans out and that was pretty badly damaged.

“There was another one in there that was worth over £12,800.”

Mr Downton’s colleague Craig Young said: “I went in there and I couldn’t see for all the smoke, the van was a foot in front of me and I couldn’t even see it.

“We didn’t have time to get anything else out.

“The firefighters came and cordoned it off and all the industrial estate’s electrics went.”

Fire crews continued to monitor the site until nearly 3am and returned yesterday to carry out inspections.