Fire kills five at suspected illegal distillery

Five men killed in an explosion at an industrial unit may have been producing illegal alcohol.

Investigators have found evidence to suggest the unit was being used as an illegal distillery.

Five men, believed to be eastern European, died after the blast on Wednesday night, while a sixth suffered 75 per cent burns and underwent surgery yesterday.

Locals near the site of the explosion and ensuing inferno speculated the unit in Boston, Lincolnshire was being used to produce alcohol.

Lincolnshire Police Superintendent Keith Owen said: "What I can confirm is that we have found chemicals on the premises which tend to indicate either the manufacture or production of alcohol."

Mr Owen said the issue of illegal alcohol production was not a new one for the area. Earlier this year police, Trading Standards and Revenue and Customs swooped on six stores in the town, seizing counterfeit vodka.

The spirit was later found to contain "Isopropyl" alcohol, widely used as a solvent and a cleaning fluid.

Last month Trading Standards bosses said Boston Borough Council's licensing committee had revoked the alcohol licence of one store, International Foods, and suspended that of another, Boston Deli, with action due to be taken against the other four.

Speaking at the time, Sergeant Jock Watt, from Lincolnshire Police's licensing team, said: "These decisions send out a clear signal that operating in this way will not be tolerated in Boston, or indeed across Lincolnshire.

"We hope that other premises who may have been tempted to sell smuggled or counterfeit goods from their venues will see this as a deterrent."

Mr Owen said: "It has been a problem in the past. We have obviously run an operation recently with HMRC and Trading Standards and that was a joint operation.

"Those people are still involved in this operation to help us to try and piece together what happened. This does not appear like a huge operation but again it's far too early to speculate.

"All I can tell you is in that room there are what appear to be the component parts of the manufacturer of an alcoholic drink. Until we have investigated I don't want to speculate on the size of the operation or even if there is an operation."