Fire investigators begin work today to establish the cause of a huge blaze that tore through a warehouse at an industrial estate in North Walsham.

The director of Drury's Environmental Services, Kevin Robotham, has praised fire crews for doing a 'splendid job' containing the blaze that erupted in the company's waste recycling warehouse on Saturday night.

Mr Robotham said today that, despite losing a lot of equipment and an area of the site being unusable, the firm was 'operating as normally as possible'.

He said: 'We have had a lot of help from contractors and even our competitors, so we are able to tell people ringing up that we are operating as normally as possible.

'The fire investigators are coming in at 11.30am today, so we should have more information then. We are obviously interested in finding out the cause of the fire, and ruling out any criminal causes. We are keeping an open mind on it.'

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service said that at the height of the blaze, 10 fire engines were on the scene as well as 60 firefighters.

They were called at around 9.30pm but it was not until the early hours of Sunday morning that the flames were brought under control.

Mr Robotham said a combination of containment by the fire brigade and fire protection walls within the warehouse prevented it from being far more severe.

A spokesperson from the fire service said today: 'We made some re-visits overnight and in the early hours of this morning to make sure the site was safe. 'Two officers are attending this morning to begin the fire investigation. One engine is on standby in case anything re-ignites.'

The warehouse was filled with recycling material, such as cardboard, wood and plastics, and on Sunday morning smoke was still billowing from the building.

The Environment Agency told the company that any risk of pollution to the nearby area has been contained.