A HUGE warehouse fire brought White City to a standstill as fears of gas cylinder explosions saw the area shut down.

Seventy-five firefighters from across west London rushed to tackle the blaze at the Unigate Dairy site, in Wood Lane, at 9.30am on Tuesday.

Wood Lane and White City tube stations were shut while the entire road was closed along with the A40 Westway and A3220 West Cross Route from Northern to Southern Roundabout for several hours with the fire was finally brought under control at 5.30pm.

Fire crews remained on the scene on Wednesday as they worked to make the building safe and investigate the cause of the blaze.

It caused thick black smoke to pour into the west London sky throughout the day as passers-by and nearby workers took to Twitter to describe the events as they unfolded.

So many took to the social networking site that the term ‘Wood Lane’ quickly went into the top 10 tweeted words in the UK.

Ollie Durham said: “Pretty much everyone has just stopped and is standing looking.”

Tessa Matchett said: “Awful stench of smoke from the fire on Wood Lane still cordoned off to traffic.” Steve Crowder said: “Thick acrid some on Wood Lane from today’s fire.”

A London Fire Bridade spokesman said: “The fire damaged a range of workshops and warehouses, as well as around 20 vehicles.

“Four acetylene cylinders found at the scene were cooled and a further 40 cylinders of various types that were not involved in the fire were removed to safety.”