Update, 2:45 pm Eastern: scroll down
Update #2: new video added 

THE SEARCH FOR THE THREE MISSING FIREFIGHTERS buried in the Warwickshire packing plant will begin today.  Because of the lack of structural integrity of the building, the only searching accomplished yesterday was a cursory visual look.

“The specialist search and rescue team were only able to enter a few feet into the building, where they remained for only a few minutes to carry out an initial visual assessment,” said a Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service spokesman.

Reuters

Late yesterday a structural engineering team halted their inspection when darkness set in.  It was expected that sometime today the fire brigade would get the all-clear that would permit them to fully enter the building to look for their colleagues and begin the investigation into the cause of the blaze.

The Telegraph reports:

Police are investigating theories about the cause of the fire, at a vegetable packing warehouse, including the possibility that it was started by a disgruntled former worker.

All four victims were members of two retained fire crews which were the first to arrive at the scene and enter the blazing building.

The warehouse, at Atherstone on Stour, was raided during a purge on illegal working conditions among migrant workers last March, when it was under previous ownership.

There were suggestions that the firemen feared there were migrant workers inside and that was why they went in. However, it is not thought there was anyone working at the time and fire chiefs will want to know if the firemen entered the building unnecessarily and whether this prompted the tragedy.

The four men were yesterday named locally as Ashley Stephens, 20, and Darren Yates-Badley, 24, both from Alcester, John Averis, 27, from Stratford-upon-Avon, and a fourth named only as Ian.

Mr Stephens’s father is the town’s fire station commander, Paul Stephens, 50, who was reported to have been present at the scene of the fire.

A close family friend of Mr Averis said: “John was a lovely brave man. It was his lifelong dream to become a firefighter. It’s tragic he lost his life doing something he loved, but it’s even more tragic he died trying to stop a fire from destroying some vegetables.”

l. to r.  John Averis, Ashley Stephens, Darren Yates-Badley
Londond Telegraph images

Read background stories from the Telegraph HERE and HERE.
Also the story from the Guardian HERE.

Update:  Nine specialist search teams from around the UK arrived in Atherton, Warwickshire today and an organized search for the three missing firefighters began this afternoon.

9 urban S & R teams have begun the search
PA/BBC image

The carefully prepared plan calls for a 36-hour inch by inch search of the building that is still being described as “dangerously unstable” and is still moving and shifting as the temperature changes.  The search teams are equipped with thermal imagers and special digging equipment.

Alcester Fire Station today
PA/BBC image

Sunday BBC News Video

Check back for updates during the day.

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