Fire has destroyed the offices of a family firm that has been in business for more than 50 years.

Firefighters were called to the blaze at AEP (Chippenham) Limited on the Leafield Industrial Estate in Corsham shortly after 11.30pm on Tuesday and an investigation is being carried out into the cause. Twelve fire appliances and 55 firefighters attended as well as police.

AEP specialises in serving a number of leading manufacturing companies by providing metal finishing and chemical processing and chemical experts were alerted. Commercial director Becky Allin, whose father Mike is the managing director, said: "We are a family business and three generations of the family have been involved with it for more than half a century.

"We are absolutely gutted about what has happened, but we will bounce back I'm sure."

The company employs a workforce of 21 and the Corsham site houses a factory with a laboratory as well as the office block which was destroyed. No-one was on site at the time.

The offices ruined by the flames housed computers and files that have all been lost.

But emergency services prevented the blaze spreading to the main part of the premises, which includes the factory and workshop.

"We are not closed for business, but we will not know exactly where we stand until we can get back in and assess the damage," said Miss Allin.

AEP has equipment to apply specialist coatings to a variety of materials such as hard chrome, zinc and copper. The Ministry of Defence is one of the company's customers and has been placing orders for a number of years. Ian Rennie from Wiltshire Fire Brigade said: "Police attended the scene just prior to midnight and the fire was contained within the offices and was prevented from spreading to the main factory.

"Due to the presence of chemicals, relevant agencies were informed and the fire service and police worked together to instigate precautionary measures in case the fire spread."

Because of the isolated location of the incident, no evacuations or road closures were needed and nobody was injured.

Waste water was removed from the site as a precaution.

Two appliances remained on site on Wednesday to dampen down hot spots and firefighters surveyed the damage.