Last updated at 12:47, Friday, 30 July 2010

Cheese production has been halted at Aspatria’s Creamery after an explosion in its boiler room.

Four fire engines raced to the scene just before 5pm yesterday to tackle the blaze, which is believed to have been caused by a problem with an immersion heater.

In the short term, the damage means that cheese production on the site has ceased and all milk has been moved away. The shop is open as normal.

Paul Flannagan, spokesman for creamery owners First Milk, said: “No employees were injured and we’ve set up a project team to handle this matter.

“In the short-term we’ve made arrangements to move milk away from the site and the next step is to really get into the building and understand what the issues are and what we can fix, and what we can’t fix.

“At the moment we can’t generate steam to produce the cheese so at the moment we are not taking milk onto the site.

“It’s a short-term work around and we see it as a short-term issue.”

The police were informed of the explosion but did not have to attend.

Aspatria Creamery is home of the Lake District Cheese Company brand, which is sold in supermarkets across the UK and is the country’s fifth-best selling cheese.

The cheese is made exclusively in the town with milk from hundreds of Cumbrian farms.

First published at 10:54, Friday, 30 July 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk