VIDEO: Northamptonshire truckstop blaze 'could have been much worse' if security guard had not evacuated drivers

Fire crews are still damping down the blaze at the Red Lion truckstop this morning.

Firefighters are likely to remain at the scene of the A4500 Red Lion truckstop for several hours this morning damping down three lorries that were destroyed by flames.

The fire started in the back of a Hungarian lorry carrying tyres and spread to two other vehicles parked next to it.

But incident commander Warren Ellison said the blaze, close to junction 16 of the M1, could have been far worse as there were 120 trucks parked in the gravel car park behind the Red Lion last night, each containing a sleeping driver.

He praised the actions of a site security guard who spotted the flames and began to evacuate drivers at around 4am .

He said: "The security guard on site was really impressive, it could have been much worse.

"He spotted the fire and did the right thing, which was to ring the driver who was asleep in the lorry at the time.

"He started to rouse the drivers sleeping around the fire as well.

A security guard raised the alarm at around 4am.

"It meant that when we got there we could crack straight on with fire fighting."

Dozens of trucks surrounding the burning lorry were moved while the 20 firefighters tackled the blaze and a cordon was set up.

Owner of the Red Lion, Ali Sadrudin, said the truckstop will be open today.

He too praised the actions of the security guard.

"We have a procedure for evacuation and he followed it perfectly," the owner said.

"The main thing is here no one got injured. You can replace trucks but you can't replace people."