VIDEO: Dramatic footage of Notts blaze from the sky

Nottinghamshire crews are working into their second day to control a huge fire at Walesby, near Ollerton.

In our video taken this morning by local helicopter pilot James Day, the scale of the building and the plume of smoking lifting into the air can be been.

James, a business owner from Chesterfield, captured the images while he was on a flight out of Gamston near Retford.

He said: "I was flying that way but i took a route over Walesby to take a lot, but i didn't go too close obviously.

And as the private pilot flew over the scene at about 600 feet he said it was striking to see from above.

"It was very dramatic as I was going over. I had seen it from the ground and the fire is really massive, it's lucky it hasn't spread any further.

"You could tell it was a really big fire, the whole building has gone up and there's no signs that it was slowing down, you could feel the heat from it in the cockpit."

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WALESBY FIRE: Warning as smoke lingers over homesPICS & VIDEO: Notts firefighters tackle huge blazeBREAKING NEWS: Firefighters tackle huge blaze at industrial unitFirefighters were called to the scene in Forest Lane, Walesby at 10.30am yesterday (Wednesday, September 21).

By 1pm said they were unable to extinguish the blaze so they had opted to 'let it burn out' and today firefighters have lowered their operation from nine fire engines yesterday to two.

A spokesperson said firefighters worked through the night to control the fire at an industrial unit, and focus on stopping it from spreading.

Firefighters at the back of the building are said to have been hosing from trees to keep the blaze away from Woodland and with a wind-change this morning the plume of smoke causes greater risk to surrounding homes as it sits lower in the atmosphere.

But the decision to let the building burn without fighting it with huge quantities of water was taken after an analysis of the area, which deemed too much of a risk of contamination to groundwater.

The brigade said in an update this morning (Thursday, September 22): "We are still on scene monitoring the situation with two appliances and continuing to work with the Environment Agency.

"Smoke from the fire this morning is currently low due the weather conditions. We would like to reiterate to residents to keep doors and windows closed, and we thank them for their cooperation."

By the afternoon, an environment agency spokesman confirmed the decision had been taken to let the building be destroyed 'in a controlled way'.

Damien West, NFRS group manager told us at the scene: "We're asking residents and businesses to keep their windows and doors shut at this time. We're working with the environment agency to ascertain the risk.

"Our main priority has been to surround the fire and contain it to the building that's affected and stop it from spreading to any surrounding risks.

"We have an area of woodland at the rear of the premises which we're also protecting."

"At the height of the operation we have nine fire engines and just under 50 personnel. We've successful contained the fire to the building of origin. In liaison with the environment and pub the decision has been been taken to continue the burn under a controlled manner. We've come to that decision in order to mitigate the risks to the environment. The smoke is a minimal risk. We've decided not to apply water to the fire because this water can run off into local water courses or to affect the local area and the local agriculture in the area depending on these water courses.

Neil Ratcliffe of the Environment agency said: "We support the decision to allow this building burn rather than fight the fire. The reason for that is that the ground water in this area is very sensitive, it's very sandy soil so any water that you use to fight the fire will very quickly filtrate into the ground water.

"The fire is producing a lot of smoke and we believe it will go on for another 24 hours at least."

There is no suggestion yet as to the cause of the blaze.