A firm whose "shoddy" system of work turned an industrial town into a "war zone" was fined £39,000 yesterday.

Three hundred homes were evacuated and 19,000 put at risk after a junior worker used a wrong piece of machinery and caused a devastating chemical blaze at the Distillex plant in North Shields, North Tyneside on April 12.

It took over 300 fire officers 30 hours to make the scene completely safe.

The Tyne Tunnel was closed and the metro system was brought to a standstill at rush-hour - which brought the busy northern town to a halt.

At the height of the blaze flames shot over 150 ft in the air and fire and thick black smoke could be seen from as far as Sunderland, more than 10 miles away.

It took six-and-a-half hours to contain while chemical drums containing flammable liquids exploded in the air and crashed through roofs and melting plastic containers caused a flow of burning liquid.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how the inferno was started when a spark from an angle grinder ignited powder soaked in a chemical called heptane - which has similar qualities to petrol.

The spark led to 413,000 litres of solvents contained in over 4,000 drums causing a massive explosion. A total of 37 police officers at the scene received minor injuries,

including skin irritations and respiratoy problems, and three civilians were also injuried. Distillex, which specialises in recycling waste solvents, pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching health and safety legislation by failing to ensure, so far as practicable, the health and safety of its workers and persons other than the workers.

The court heard how five businesses operating near the plant were detroyed when blazing drums crashed into them and over £650,000 worth of damage was caused to the surrounding area.

Distillex, which employed 13 staff, was burnt to the ground.

Prosecutor David Rowland told the court: "The prosecution is based on the fact that a shoddy system of work was in operation at the site."

Mr Rowland said the operator had received no formal training for that particular job but picked up the system of operation from other members of staff.

The company say that although no written safety guide was in place for that particular procedure, there were safety procedures in place.

Jeremy Freedman, for the company, said: "The first and most important thing is they want to apologise to everybody who was adversely effected by this."

Mr Freedman said the blaze has had a "castastrophic" effect of the company's finances.

He added: "There is no suggestion here that this company was taking short cuts in order to increase profitability".

Judge Peter Bullock ordered that the firm pay a £39,000 fine and £7,975 costs.

He said; "What was a peaceful industrial area became a war zone with flying containers and drums of highly flammable liquid raining down."