ASOS loses 20% of stock at Barnsley warehouse after "deliberate" fire

23rd Jun 2014 06:39

ASOS customers resumed online shopping on Monday after a fire at the retailer's main warehouse in Barnsley forced the company to suspend its website.South Yorkshire Police said they are treating the incident as "deliberate" and have launched a criminal investigation.Emergency services were called to the Park Spring Road warehouse at 22:00 on Friday to reports of a blaze, which resulted in the evacuation of around 500 ASOS workers.On its official company Facebook page on Saturday, ASOS said: "We experienced a fire in our warehouse last night and fortunately nobody was hurt. "We have pressed pause on the website whilst we ascertain the situation but we expect to be back up and running in the next day or so."ASOS said that the warehouse is "the centre of our distribution capability". As of May 31st, the business held £159m of stock at cost, of which around 70% is held at Barnsley.The company said it estimates that 20% of the stock was "compromised by fire damage and the sprinkler systems".Andy Hayter from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said in an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield that without an early intervention of emergency services, the warehouse would have been destroyed.ASOS restarted taking orders at 02:00 of Monday morning.BC