THE owner of a factory which was destroyed by fire says he cannot guarantee the jobs of his 13 staff.

Matthew Rohan, who owns the Rohan Woodworking factory in Norton, fled from the building with one other staff member when flames started coming out of the extraction system at about 5.45pm last Wednesday.

Firefighters spent all night tackling the blaze at the factory building near the Redrow housing estate. Scarborough Road was closed from the junction near Commercial Street, and many residents suffered interruptions to their water supply.

Fire investigators picked through the wreckage of the devastated factory on Thursday to try and find the cause of the fire.

Roz Ramli, from North Yorkshire Fire Service, said: “We believe sawdust got into this system and that has led to friction causing the dust to smoulder and the fire to start outside the factory, before spreading inside the building.

“It would have spread fairly rapidly once it took hold because the factory was full of timber and plywood sheets, as well as glue, which can be quite flammable.”

Mr Ramli said he did not think there was any way the fire could have been prevented.

Mr Rohan, who rents the factory, and has been running the business from that site for 10 years, said he estimated that the total cost of everything lost in the fire would be between £750,000 and £1 million.

Rohan’s produce kitchen units, shop fittings and wooden interiors, and much of the expensive machinery used in production cannot be salvaged.

Mr Rohan has also been forced to tell some of his customers, who he says have been very understanding, that their orders will be delayed.

He said: “This fire is a final kick in the teeth, because our factory got flooded back in 2001 and then again in 2003.

“The long-term plan had to be looked at, but in the short term, the plan is to be up and running, somewhere else, within a few weeks.

“I am hoping to be able to keep my staff on, because I’ve got some very skilled men, but it is impossible to guarantee anything.

“We won’t be giving up though, and Rohan Woodworking will still exist in the Malton area in some form or other in the future.”