Hopes fading for missing factory workers

RESCUERS searching for four people still unaccounted for after Friday’s huge explosion at a Cheshire factory, admit that hopes of finding them alive are fading.

Three men and a woman, who worked at Boden Group’s wood flour mill at Bosley south of Macclesfield, have not yet been named.

Search and rescue dogs have been used in a challenging rescue operation at the site where a four-storey building collapsed after the blast.

Paul Hancock, chief fire officer at Cheshire Fire and Rescue, said on Saturday: “There is still hope but the longer the incident continues without knowimg or locating these four individuals, it is looking more like a recovery than a rescue operation.

“Until we account for them there’s always hope.”

More than 30 people were assessed after the blast and four people were taken to hospital. Firefighters say temperatures hit 1,000 degrees celsius  during the inferno as the highly-inflammable material kerosene was ignited.

The cause of the blaze, is still unknown.