Oxford Mail said fire crews were directed to the firm’s compressor house after a piece of kit – understood to be a CompAir air compressor – caught fire at just before 8.40pm last night (9 January).

The sprinkler system was already on and working, which prevented the fire from spreading further. Staff had been evacuated before fire crews arrived, a few minutes after the alarm was raised, to extinguish the fire.

Fire crews worked with an onsite specialist engineer to isolate the electricity supply and unaffected parts of the company’s site quickly resumed normal operation.

In a statement published in the Buckingham and Winslow Advertiser, Dave Bray, fire protection and business safety manager for Cherwell and West Oxfordshire, said: “This incident clearly demonstrates the benefit of businesses having an automatic water suppression system to protect their plant, product and buildings.

“The site workers were alerted to the presence of fire through their fire detection and warning system and, upon investigating the cause of the alert, found their sprinkler system already activating and holding the growth of the fire in check.

“The sprinklers contained the fire to the piece of equipment where it started, and extinguished the flames.”

Bray added other pieces of plant equipment in this area and the structure of the building itself were “completely undamaged” and the company was able to return to business “very quickly”.

Walstead company Wyndeham Bicester acquired Polestar Bicester’s equipment and took on the site’s employees in June last year.

The company was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.