A LOCAL business has been devastated by a destructive fire that ravaged their premises and has left management struggling to figure out what to do next.

Plumes of smoke could be seen from across town on Friday evening as flames tore through BCS Garage on Wakefield Road in Smithies.

The blaze destroyed one of the mechanics’ bays, with the building and much of the stock turned to ash by the time firefighters managed to take control of the situation.

General manager, Wayne England, told the Chronicle: “A whole service bay, including the roof and a vehicle, are all gone.

“We’re very fortunate we didn’t lose it all and thankfully everyone got out safely.

“There’s been an amazing response from the community but it’s all about getting those core services up and running again now.

“I’ve never dealt with anything like this so I’m just going through the process of trying to get everything back together.”

The business has already reopened, with Wayne and his team working hard to restore electricity to the main office and sort out any jobs they can do with customers.

Though he acknowledges this won’t be a quick fix and the long recovery process will add onto the ongoing stresses local businesses face.

“It’s still early days, but I’m an optimist,” he added.

“But for a while we’re going to be one service bay down which is going to have an impact.

“Thankfully we have CCTV that’s pointing at that bay so we’ve got details on where and when it started.

“Now we’ve just got to work with insurance, but nothing happens quickly.”

The blaze began just before 5pm, with fire services responding quickly and working for hours to control the situation.

“Within ten minutes of reporting the fire they were here the response was brilliant.

“It’s a working mechanics bay so you can imagine all the sort of tools and consumables that we had in there.

“There were explosions going on left, right and centre staff were wondering about trying to save stuff but I just said get away, get to safety.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

A South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue spokesperson said: “Crews from Barnsley, Tankersley and Cudworth Fire Stations were called at 4.53pm on Friday 17 January to reports of a fire on Wakefield Road, Barnsley.

“Firefighters used two hose reel jets and one main line jet to tackle the fire.

“Crews left the scene at 7:02pm. The fire is believed to have been caused accidently.”