It took fire crews several hours to fully dampen the flames at the building, close to the rear of the Commercial pub, in Bradford Road.

Thick, black smoke billowed across the town as local residents and workers looked on during rush hour, in scorching weather conditions.

It is believed that the fire started at around 5pm and that the building, which was unoccupied, was used to store carpets and other materials.

A spokeswoman for the West Yorkshire Fire Service said: "Crews from Cleckheaton and Bradford attended a derelict two-storey carpet warehouse which was completely engulfed by the fire. Two large jets and two ground monitors were used.

"The cause is being investigated and is being treated as suspicious. Police were called to the incident."

Earlier in the day crews were called out to a small fire in the grounds of the adjacent Ambassador's Snooker Club, which is derelict.

Mike Smith, of Mike's Carpets and owner of the building, said he lost around £20,000 worth of stock in the blaze.

He said: "It's unfortunate that this happened because we were storing some cord carpets that we were waiting to transfer to our main warehouse. It's lucky no-one was hurt."