A WOMAN says she is “devastated” by a fire that caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to her business.

Aleasha Pilawa from Bargoed owns Mcintyre Tyres in Pontypool and has been left counting the cost after a fire destroyed part of the business premises on Friday night.

She said: "I’d estimate the damage at £15,000. It’s mostly tyres and two storage units that we used to store them in. They were commercial tyres for vans, trucks and lorries and our most expensive tyres.”

The fire started at around 11pm on Friday evening.

A South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: "The fire stated in a shed and spread to an external area with some motor vehicles."

A number of vehicles in the garage next to Mcintyre Tyres were damaged in the fire.

The spokeswoman added: "We reinspected at 8.30am this morning and the incident is now closed."

Ms Pilawa said she received a call alerting her to the fire and then raced to the scene.

She said: "At around 11pm a customer rang and said the building was on fire. I’m devastated, but there could have been somebody in there and that’s what you have to think about."

The business will not be closed for long and the work of cleaning up the damage has been ongoing.

Ms Pilawa said: “We have a team of five boys and they have pulled the buildings down and moved everything so we are up and ready to trade. We can’t salvage anything.

“We will open on Monday morning, but we lost a day’s trade on Saturday and now we have to get suppliers to supply us now.”

Witness Daniel Busi said he saw a "big fire" and emergency services at the scene.

"I work in Pontypool on a Friday night and saw the fire just as firemen got there," he said.

"It looked pretty big, it was definitely attracting a lot of people who were watching.

“I was a bit worried because of the amount of cars right by where the fire was, if there had been a lot of petrol in cars could been a lot worse."