FIRE crews attended a fire at a Netherton laboratory yesterday.

Crews from Tipton, Cradley Heath and Smethwick attended the fire in the first floor lab at Exova UK Ltd in Halesowen Road, shortly before 5.30pm.

The fire had broken out inside the ventilation extraction unit, with 10 per cent of the two-storey building engulfed in flames.

Firefighters wore chemical protection suits and gloves to put out the flames because of the presence of laboratory gases.

Police, West Midlands Ambulance Service and Environmental officers were also in attendance at the premises, which is one of the world’s leading laboratories in the testing of pipeline materials for the oil and gas industry.