It took more than 300 firefighters to put out the flames at the warehouse in Hampshire

This article is the subject of a legal complaint from Ocado Group Plc

Firefighters trying to put out flames at an Ocado warehouse had to dodge robots as they battled through the smoke to find the one that started the fire.

The company’s customer fulfilment centre in Andover, Hampshire, has 1,110 robots that sort and package groceries for delivery. It caught fire on Tuesday.

More than 300 firefighters in 20 fire engines tackled the blaze in an area in which 600 robots pick groceries for 30,000 deliveries a week. Some said that the robots on the “grid”, a three-storey aluminium structure, continued to move independently while they tried to put out the fire.

Some 600 robots pick and pack items for 30,000 Ocado deliveries a week at the warehouse PETER NICHOLLS/REUTERS

“They are battery powered and were still moving about when we