Staffordshire firefighters spent a night tackling a fire from the outside of a two-storey building after they were warned it would be unsafe to enter.

The fire, believed to have been deliberate, started around 9pm last Thursday in an unoccupied industrial building in Longton.

A spokesperson for Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “Internal access was restricted due to the stability of the building meaning the 17 firefighters had to tackle the blaze externally until a building inspector was able to attend.”

Relief crews from around the area were later mobilised to the incident which continued until 9am the following day.

Stoke-on-Trent assistant area commander, Glynn Luznyj said: “The building is unoccupied [and] there was evidence of previous entry, but we had to wait until the last of the fire had been extinguished before we could check internally.

"The owner of the property has been informed and we would like to remind commercial property owners to carefully review their security arrangements.”