The breaking story of a fire on an industrial estate which is home to the Express & Echo in Exeter saw staff there go into overdrive to bring readers the story in print, online and video.

The fire, which broke out at around 2.30am today, prompted a special 3,000 print-run late edition after the paper – which prints overnight – had gone to press.

More than 80 firefighters were called out to the blaze on the Sowton Industrial Estate in Exeter, at a factory containing a quantity of chemicals.

The special late edition (below) included five pages of coverage of the incident.

A story was posted online at thisisexeter.co.uk, and a slideshow of more than 30 photographs from the scene was available by 10am.

The paper also sent out a video journalist to get footage of firefighters tackling the blaze.

Editor Marc Astley said: “This demonstrates that we are now a multi-media newsroom and not just a paper.

“Six months ago we would have been thinking special edition, but now we have also got video and pictures, and can break the story on the web.

“It really was a great all-round effort by newsroom staff.”