Hope is fading for four workers missing after two huge explosions and a fire destroyed a mill.
Smouldering ruins are still being doused as firefighters begin the search for four workers caught in the blast and blaze.
The Wood Flour Mills in Bosley, Near Macclesfield, was struck by three explosions just after 9am on Friday morning. 35 people were assessed by medics and ambulance crews at the scene, and four were taken to hospital - some being airlifted to specialist units. Four remain unaccounted for.
Search and rescue teams are now preparing to enter the dangerous site of twisted metal and rubble still smouldering after the incident at the wood flour mill in the village of Bosley, Cheshire.
The three men and a woman may have been working in the upper floors of the four-storey building - now a pile of still smoking, twisted metal and bricks.
One missing worker has been named by relatives as Jason Shingler.
Another missing person was named locally as Dorothy Bailey, 62, who worked as a cleaner and in the mill office.
Chief Fire Officer Paul Hancock said team leaders and search dogs have been in the collapsed mill since 5am this morning to assess the building. He said: "There's still hope but the longer the incident continues without knowing or locating these four individuals, it is looking more like a recovery than a rescue operation. Until we account for them there's always hope."
At first light today, around 5am, an initial assessment was done of the site, with around 20 firefighters forming a specialist urban search and rescue team, preparing to start to enter parts of the site using a sniffer dog.
Sixty other firefighters along with ambulance crews and police are on hand with water still being used to douse and cool silos and thermal image cameras assessing temperatures to look for "hot spots".
Search and rescue teams - including some who have recently returned from the Nepal earthquake - will enter the mill once it is safe to do so.
Jagged steelwork and iron girders point up at the sky at all angles, below it a pyramid of mangled masonry and steel, with iron sheeting from the mill roof littering the site and surrounding fields - evidence of the force of the blast.
Scattered across the site are fire engines, incident response units, pumps, ambulances and police cars.
Firefighters say temperatures reached up to 1,000 degrees centigrade as an inferno engulfed the mill, set amid rolling fields, down a country lane in the picturesque village of Bosley.
Running alongside the mill the River Dane is now being pumped of its water to use on the still smoking ruins, parts of the river itself turning petrol blue, from the 5,000 litres of kerosene released in the blast and leaching into the water.
The inflammable liquid ignited in the blaze, with firemen met by a river of fire as they arrived at the site yesterday morning, as the liquid leaked from cylinders.
Dozens of dishevelled and weary-looking firemen, faces, gloves and uniforms blackened from soot, are still at work, around 100 in all, with the site still thick with acrid smoke hanging in the air.
Pieces of firefighting equipment litter the area, along with white polystyrene cups from a mobile Salvation Army tea bar, to serve the emergency personnel called to the incident.
Search teams in orange uniforms and wearing face masks and helmets are now painstakingly removing debris, hoping to find any sign of life in voids within the debris, as ambulance crew stand by in case casualties are located.
High volume pumps are being used with thick hoses criss-crossing the site from the banks of the river up a narrow lane to the mill, where six high-platform jets are still dowsing the site from above.
Yet more pumps are hosing down the base of buildings and silos, still full of wood flour and still smoking.
A succession of cordons remain in place, a final one to count every one going in and off the inner site, in case of further explosions.
Across the road leading into the mill, the windows and even window frames have been blown out of some homes in a row of terraces cottages, a piece of iron sheeting blasted from the mill coming to rest on one roof.
Tony Brown, a station manager with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, but acting as a search and rescue expert adviser, said: "The process is slow and steady. We have got a rough idea of where the people are, from intelligence before the incident and from running the search dogs over the pile. We are not going to give up, in the hope we do find somebody."
Alex Waller, head of service delivery at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "Our thoughts are with the families of the missing. At the moment we are really doing all we can.
"We have been working around the clock, overnight, we have not scaled back resources and we are not going to do so.
"We are going to keep going until we find or locate any casualties or any people.
"As you can see it is really difficult, really challenging, really dangerous.
"We are painstakingly moving through all of the wreckage, the search and rescue teams they will pull back any wreckage, we have got heavy lifting gear, we will pull that back, very very gently and see if we can find anybody underneath.
"We also have to bear in mind there's an investigation, so there's a lot of photography going on at the same time, imagery, any voids within that pile, where somebody would have a chance.
"The dogs will search an area, then we move in, and slowly peel the debris away."
Macclesfield MP Mr Rutley told the M.E.N. that the community has been devastated by the blast at the site, which is the biggest employer in the area.
He said: "We are holding out hope. We have got some amazing fire and rescue teams down there doing their utmost to carry out the search and rescue and make the site safe. But it's also very clear having seen the site, that it's incredibly difficult.
"I thought it would be a building carcass with smoke billowing out, but the building has been completely destroyed. It is a scene of destruction.
"We've just got to hope that they can rescue the people down there.
"It's shocking, I have never seen anything like it before. It's completely unrecognisable. Huge chunks of metal have been thrown metres away. It's not just a fire, it's a really profound explosion.
"Houses a mile away could feel the shake.
"It's a very traditional close knit community here and they are supporting each other at the moment."
Resident Bill Douse said he thought a plane had crashed in the village when he heard the initial explosion yesterday morning.
Mr Douse, 72, said said the community has been rocked by the blast, which caused burns and injuries to four people.
He said: "Everybody is devastated.
"I heard a terrific explosion - I thought it was a plane crash. I came over to the pub and watched the flames coming up into the air. Bosley Cloud was shrouded in smoke for a couple of hours."
Bill, who is tower captain of the St Mary's Church bell ringers, said a quarter peel of half muffled bells will be rung at 11am on Sunday as a mark of respect for workers who were injured and those who are missing.
A one-mile cordon remains in place around the site, with acetylene and liquid gas cylinders along with kerosene in the wreckage. Cheshire Police said they were working closely with the families of the four missing. All four are believed to be local, with one from the village of Bosley.
A 29-year-old woman was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, after she suffered serious burns and blast injuries to her head, face, arms and chest.
Another two people were taken to a specialist trauma unit at Royal Stoke University Hospital, while a fourth male casualty was taken to Whiston Hospital, Merseyside.
Up to 80 firefighters from Cheshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester and Staffordshire fire and rescue services attended and were supported by colleagues from the West Midlands and North West ambulance services, together with Cheshire Police.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation. The mill, which made linoleum products out of wood ground down to a powder or flour, is run by Wood Treatment Ltd, part of the Bodens Group, which says the company has been producing wood flour since 1930 and is the sole manufacturer in the UK, according to the Bodens Group of Companies website.
The site suffered a fire in 2012.
