A BLAZING inferno engulfed a lorry full of paper on the approach to the Runcorn Widnes bridge.

The alert driver, aged around 30, spotted flames underneath his cab, leapt to safety and raised the alarm.

"It was well alight from one end to the other," said sub officer Steve McVey, who was at the scene in four minutes. "It was very dramatic.

"If it had been on the bridge, it could have been a lot worse. The heat could have affected the structure."

Loud explosions as 12 tyres burst sent anxious West Bank residents running into the street.

A teenage girl said: "I heard a massive explosion, came out onto the bridge and saw the lorry up in flames."

A young boy, added: "There was a really loud bang."

Thick black smoke could be seen for miles around as 20 firefighters tackled the fierce blaze.

A huge tailback of traffic built up as the Runcorn bound carriageway was closed just as the rush hour started, at 4pm, last Thursday.

The lorry, from Stockton on Tees, had just collected 21 tons of baled paper in Widnes. It was heading to Germany to be recycled.

"A burning cargo of baled paper takes hours to put out," explained sub officer McVey. "We unloaded the smouldering paper with fork lift trucks into big skips and took them to a yard in Ditton Road. We spent until 9.30pm, damping it down."

An electrical or mechanical fault is suspected to have ignited the lorry, which was only 12-months-old.