BOSSES at Carlisle’s McVitie’s biscuit factory have reassured the public that a fire has not disrupted production of their popular bourbons.

Firefighters worked for almost four hours on Sunday tackling a blaze in its biggest industrial oven. McVitie’s say the oven was not on at the time of the fire.

Crews from the city’s East and West Fire Stations were called to McVitie’s, in Church Street, at about 1.15pm.

The fire was contained in an 80-metre-long industrial oven, on the Bourbon Creams production line, Carlisle East watch manager Adrian Dargue confirmed.

Firefighters quickly isolated the gas and electric and used four carbon dioxide extinguishers, and a hose reel jet to put out the fire.

Mr Dargue said temperatures in the oven would have been in excess of 500 C.

The factory was swiftly evacuated and Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service helped minimise disruption to the rest of production.

No one was injured during the blaze.

Fire crews said they made the area safe and allowed staff back on site for essential maintenance work.

A spokeswoman for McVitie’s said: “The oven wasn’t actually on at the time so no biscuits were impacted at all by the fire.

“We are now going through protocol as we do with all fires. We are bakers so some of these incidents happen from time to time.

“The firefighters efforts were fantastic. The site is back up and running today (November 23). Everyone is safe and following protocols.”

Crews were at the scene for three-and-a-half hours.