Fire service releases video of Ocado Andover warehouse destroyed by fire

Warehouse completely destroyed by fire, reveals Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service video

Hampshire Fire and Rescue has released video images of Ocado's Andover warehouse, which was destroyed by fire this week.

While the fire service declared this morning that the fire has been extinguished, around ten members of the fire service will continue working on-site to damp down the smouldering remains.

The video indicates that the warehouse has been almost entirely destroyed, with the blackened roof caved in, and smoke still rising from the charred ruins.

Yesterday morning, Hampshire Fire and Rescue completed an operation to siphon off ammonia gas from on-site tanks, used to keep the ambient temperature in the warehouse at a low level.

The fire service had feared that if (or when) the fire reached the tanks it could cause a big explosion. Residents had been evacuated on Wednesday as a precaution after a 500 metre exclusion zone had been set up.

The company claimed that the Andover site accounts for around 10 per cent of its business - or 30,000 orders per week. It added that it would step-up output at the company's other warehouses in Hatfield, Erith and Dordon to make good the shortfall, but admitted that sales were likely to fall in the short term.

While Hatfield and Dordon sites are labour-intensive, its Erith site, like Andover, was highly automated with robots taking orders from one side of the warehouse to the other along steel and aluminium grids.

Reuters reports that the fire service declined to comment on reports that the fire started in automated packaging machinery installed at the site.

Ocado's shares have dropped by more than 10 per cent following news of the fire, amid fears that it could affect the company's growth. The fire might not just affect its sales in the UK market, but also internationally, where it sells its technology in exclusive deals with supermarket chains desperate to build their own online businesses.

At the moment, it handles fulfilment for Morrisons and provides Waitrose products via its Ocado-branded service in the UK, and has deals with the Kroger supermarket chain in the US, Casino in France and Sobeys in Canada.

Ocado claims that its Andover site was comprehensively insured, including for loss of business. However, insurers and shareholders will want to know why the in-house designed sprinkler system failed to put the fire out before it caught hold.

In June, Ocado Engineering announced that it had been awarded the FM Global Highly Protected Risk award for the sprinkler system at its Andover Customer Fulfilment Centre.

The company has yet to provide an update on the fire and its impact on the company since Wednesday.