IT WAS one of East Yorkshire's biggest peacetime fires in living memory, with 167 firefighters battling to put out the flames.
Smoke billowed across the Westwood, for a time masking the Minster, and the unfolding inferno could be seen from as far away as Bridlington.
Today, a picture in the reception of Bartoline Limited, a firm supplying the nation's DIY stores, is the only physical reminder to events of that sunny spring morning in 2003.
But even the image on the wall tells a story of rebirth – a family business that has, quite literally, risen from the ashes.
Managing director Simon Barton, whose great-great grandfather Richard launched the Beverley business in 1876, remembers how he felt the day the factory went up in flames.
"Utter numbness, disbelief, responsibility," says Simon, sitting in his office at the modern, multi-million pound factory. "I felt an enormous weight of responsibility on my shoulders.
"It's a family business. I was watching years of history go up in smoke.
"I'm the fourth generation of my family to run this business and I didn't want to be responsible for the end of it."
Officially, the cause of the blaze was never established, although it is thought a carelessly discarded cigarette was to blame. Thankfully, no one was injured.
Firefighters from Lincolnshire joined their East Yorkshire colleagues in their efforts to bring the blaze under control.
Keith Marshall, then Humberside Fire and Rescue Service's chief officer, directed the operation from the ground.
"The fire started at 9.30am and it was still burning at 9pm," says Simon.
"The firefighters that day did a sterling job organising and controlling the operation."
But without minimising the actions of the fire crews, the hardest job, that of rebuilding the business, had not even started.
"I felt a real responsibility to rebuild," says Simon.
Back then, the company, which makes and packages a variety of products for the likes of B&Q, employed about 70 people.
Simon says: "It was six to eight weeks before we could see the vision for the future of the business. We are a long-standing business with an excellent reputation and those customers remained loyal. We are enormously grateful to them."
And so it was that a new factory, the envy of its competitors, was built, opening in June 2005.
"We had some tremendous support," Simon says.
"Stephen Parnaby, leader of East Riding Council, was instrumental.
"We moved to a depot in Annie Reed Road that had recently been bought by the council until we rebuilt. That enabled us to keep the workforce and continue production."
The saying, 'Every cloud has a silver lining' could have been written for Bartoline Ltd.
Swimming against the tide of recession, Bartoline Ltd recorded an annual turnover of just short of £24m last year.
"That's a record turnover," says Simon. "In fact, three of the last four years have been records."
Recession has slowed the housing market, resulting in more people improving their properties ready for when the economy picks up.
"People are spending more money on DIY, which is good news for us," says Simon.
Bartoline come a long way since the fire, let alone the days of the man who launched the business.
Back then, the company imported and exported coal, both to and from Europe and, closer to home, in Teesside.
With the birth of the motor industry, the company switched to motor oils in the 1930s.
By the time the 1960s came round, the company was exploring the Middle East.
"We used to joke we were selling oil back to the Arabs," laughs Simon.
The switch to DIY materials happened in the 1970s.
Now, 80 per cent of its products are sold in this country.
"We find it easy to sell to the Arab states because of the reputation we earned with oil," says Simon, who says he has "irons in the fire" for his company's next move.
"I can't elaborate further but we have to keep evolving and becoming better and better at what we do.
"None of this would have been possible had it not been for the fire."
