FIREFIGHTERS battled through the night to control a massive blaze at a Gwent bakery. The emergency services have now launched an investigation into the cause of the fire at Avana Bakeries,Wern Industrial Estate, Rogerstone, just after 2.30pm yesterday.

Seventy-five firefighters with 15 fire-engines and a hydraulic platform worked through the night to bring the blaze under control.

The factory was closed when the fire broke out and nobody was hurt in the blaze, but a handful of staff and cleaners had to flee from the scene.

As black smoke billowed from the site, residents, including many of the 600 staff at the factory, packed on to a nearby embankment and watched in horror as the fire ripped through the premises.

The fire comes at the busiest time of year for the cake and Christmas pudding producers, and some workers were close to tears as the fire took hold.

A spokeswoman for the company said she could not confirm when the factory was likely to re-open.

It is the second fire at the bakery, one of Newport's biggest employers, in four years. Many at the scene reported hearing explosions during the blaze. Onlookers also claimed children had been seen running from the factory moments before the fire.

Fire crews from Newport, Abercarn, Cwmbran, Usk, Abersychan, Caerphilly and Cardiff tackled the fire, which is thought to have started in a dispatch area before engulfing three articulated lorries and spreading to a three-storey office block.

Gwent Police and South Wales Fire Service have launched an investigation.

Many workers were too upset to comment, but a tearful Kath Hough, from Risca, said: "I was so upset when I arrived. We have all worked so hard, especially as we approach Christmas - it's absolutely terrible."

Fellow worker in the cake component department, Dawn Clement, of Tregwilym Road, Rogerstone, said: "This is sickening. I am gutted by it, to be honest."

A spokeswoman for Avana Bakeries said: "The fire started at the front of the factory in the dispatch area where pallets are stored. It spread to an empty trailer in the dispatch area. The fire then spread to the first floor of the factory."

No estimate has been put on the value of stock damaged in the blaze, thought to include thousands of Christmas puddings.

* Pictured: Firemen tackling the blaze