 I'm Phil Charles, I'm a senior station officer based at Cranburn Fire Station. Around about 3.30 this afternoon we received a call to an electrical fire at a local abattoir in Thompson's Road, Cranbourne. We arrived on scene and we found a fire burning in one corner of the premises. We initially tried an internal attack but that was quite dangerous because by that stage some of the ceiling was starting to fall in. So we reverted to an external attack and we could see the fire. At that stage it gave quite a bit of momentum and was spreading from the west of the factory down to the eastern end of the factory. So initially we called for additional pumpers to respond and also aerial appliances to respond as well and further equipment was called as the fire progressed. It looked quite grim on arrival just the way the fire was spreading but with the use of the aerial appliances, the platforms in Dadinong and the Tally Boom from Frankston, we actually did manage to pull the fire up and stop it engulfing the whole factory. So some fairly aggressive work by the firefighters did manage to pull that fire up which really surprised all of us. There was also a large number of stock onsite, cattle and sheep, right next to the factory itself. So luckily management did arrive and we were able to herd those cattle in some other holding pen so as far as I know all the cattle were safely herded in some paddocks at the rear of the property. We had catering because a large number of personnel onsite, I would say probably at one stage maybe 80 personnel from Fire Brigade and other supporting services. So we had catering and also we now have called on the SES to provide lighting because the cleanup is going to continue into the night. One of the critical problems that we did find was there was one hydrant from a street main for the whole complex. So it was very difficult to spend one single water supply to put out a factory fire. So we managed to get some large capacity pumps set up on a dam. So we had two of those pumping and they eventually became our major water source to provide the aerial appliances with water to extinguish the fire. At this stage it looks like probably half or even more of the factory is damaged so there will be substantial bill for the owners here, obviously several million dollars in. We have had the police on scene fairly early to help with our investigation and also the CFA specialist fire investigators have been on scene but the cause is still undetermined.