Four taken to hospital after fire

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More than 100 firefighters tackled the blaze at the factory

Four people were taken to hospital suffering from the effects of breathing in smoke after a major fire at a glass factory in County Fermanagh.

At its height, 16 fire appliances and 126 firefighters tackled the blaze which broke out at Quinn Glass in Derrylin at about 2100 GMT on Saturday.

It took the crews 11 hours to put the fire out.

The firm said there was no risk to the jobs of the 378 people employed at the plant or to their customers' supply.

The Fire Service's area commander Eoin Doyle said the blaze had started in a furnace and they had to deal with "400 tonnes of molten glass" spilling out of it, at an "approximate temperature of 1,600 degrees centigrade".

"We used eight fire fighting jets of water to try and cool the glass to try and contain it within the factory complex, which we did successfully, but it took quite a number of resources to do that," Mr Doyle explained.

In a statement, Quinn Glass said a furnace support system had failed and glass had leaked into a "purpose-built retaining area" below it.

But the company said the situation "was kept under control at all times" with the help of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and its own staff.

The Derrylin factory manufactures glass containers for the food and beverage industries.

The firm said it expected full production to be restored at the plant within two weeks.