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Media caption, Drone footage shows the extent of the fire and smoke in Baldock
By Alex Pope & Tony Fisher
BBC News, Hertfordshire
A business owner says he has lost about ￡250,000 after two of his companies were destroyed in a major fire that ripped through an industrial estate.
About 40 businesses were destroyed in the blaze at the Baldock Industrial Estate in Hertfordshire that started at about 18:15 BST on Tuesday.
Kareem Kamil was due to open an nightclub and was refurbishing a pizza takeaway there.
"It's terrible, literally 15 months of hard work, it's gone," he said.
Image source, Tony Fisher/BBC
Image caption, Kareem Kamil was on the site at the time of the fire
Mr Kamil said he was working on the roof terrace when the blaze started and was the only person there.
"I got out in time; it caught like wild fire," he said.
He said the fire brigade "were brilliant" and he was lucky not to be hurt.
The building was insured, but he said his contents insurance had not been finalised.
Image source, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Image caption, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service declared a major incident
"It's all gone, that's my savings, all my children's savings, gone down the pan. I invested everything in it and it's literally gone down in smoke," added Mr Kamil.
Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was out and an investigation into the cause had started which was "likely to take some time".
Image source, Tony Fisher/BBC
Image caption, Craig Ross spoke at a meeting attended by people affected in the area on Thursday afternoon
A packed meeting was held on Thursday afternoon at Baldock Community Centre for those affected by the fire.
Craig Ross, who has a number of businesses on the site and a unit with five tenants, told the BBC "it was horrific" when he saw the flames.
He said so many business had been affected and local farmers turned up to provide water on the night.
"They've all got their tractors out with bowsers of water," he said.
"I cried, they were just providing water to the fire service so they could do what they could do to stop the fire spreading."
Image source, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Image caption, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said there might be a bad smell in the area for "some time"
Image source, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Image caption, The fire affected some 40 businesses on the industrial estate
The industrial estate, off London Road, is next the town's Tesco supermarket, which was also evacuated.
Residents were asked to keep their windows closed due to the large amount of smoke, and some lost power and water supplies.
The fire service said there might be an unpleasant smell in the air for some time, but it was not harmful.
Sir Oliver Heald, Conservative MP for North East Hertfordshire, said it had been a "big shock" for the town and said "43 industrial units have been destroyed".
Image source, Claire Walton
Image caption, Firefighters were sent to the industrial estate off London Road on Tuesday afternoon
Darren Cook, from the fire service, said: "This was a very challenging incident for Hertfordshire Fire and at the peak we had 17 engines attending and we declared it at major incident at about eight o'clock on the evening of the incident."
Image source, Tony Fisher/BBC
Image caption, Darren Cook from the fire service said crews from across Hertfordshire attended, along with help from neighbouring Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire
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