AN investigation has been launched following a serious fire at a warehouse.

Firefighters were called to Teesbay Business Park, Hartlepool, after factory staff noticed smoke billowing from a neighbouring building, at 6.30pm on Saturday.

They arrived to find a workshop containing rolls of printing paper, two cars, a caravan, tyres, pallets and cylinders well alight. The fire had also spread to a neighbouring office.

It took about 50 firefighters, and ten engines, using a hydraulic platform and breathing apparatus, almost eight hours to extinguish it.

Station officer Peter Kloed said: "You could see the fire from a good distance, and it took a long time to put out because the paper was so tightly packed. It had the potential to be a major incident, with all the surrounding buildings."

The cause of the fire has not been established.