The fiancée of one of the four firefighters feared to have died tackling the warehouse blaze made a written vow to him yesterday that she would look after their three-month-old son.

Emma Crocker wept as she laid flowers outside the station where Ashley Stephens worked, and promised that she would never forget her “hero”.

Mr Stephens is believed to have perished with his colleagues as they fought the ferocious inferno at the vegetable processing plant in Atherstone on Stour on Friday night.

His father, Paul, a watch commander, was among 80 firefighters who were also sent to the inferno and was said to be inconsolable at the loss of the son who had followed in his footsteps.

Yesterday a steady stream of people laid dozens of bouquets in front of the fire station in Alcester, the small market town where Mr Stephens, 20, lived with his 17-year-old partner.

Among the mound of flowers was Ms Crocker’s bunch of yellow and pink carnations. The attached note read: “To my Darling Ashley. I love you with all my heart and more.

“I will look after our Baby Boy. You will never be forgotten and you will never leave our hearts.

“You’re a hero, Babe. From your honey, Emma and George.”

Resting with the bouquet were more flowers from Mr Stephens’s sister, Kerry.

In her note, she wrote: “Ashley, no words can express to you how I feel. You were my brother, the one person who meant so much.

“I’m thinking of you always, bro. Love you lots. Your sister Kerry.”

On the social networking site Bebo, Mr Stephens described himself as a “full-time joiner and a retained firefighter”, and said that he hoped one day to be accepted as a full-time firefighter.

His body, and those of two others, Darren Yates-Bradley, 24, from Alcester, and John Averis, 27, are thought to lie among the rubble and debris. The fourth man, Ian Reid, 44, was pulled from the blaze with critical injuries but died soon after arriving at hospital. Mr Yates-Bradley had a young daughter and had married only last month.

Lucy Coombes, 26, a childhood friend of Mr Yates-Bradley, said: “I went to school with him and I used to meet him down the gym. It’s such a sad loss for the whole community. Myself and all of my friends are absolutely devastated. He’s only just got married and because Alcester is such a small place, everyone knew him. It’s just so sad.”

As residents of the town gathered outside the fire station, some with their heads bowed as they read the messages of support on the floral tributes, the chaplain for the Warwickshire force, the Rev Canon David Capron urged the community to pull together. He said: “There is silence around the town. It’s been a day and period of mixed emotions. Now it’s settling in, it’s beginning to bite.

“There’s children involved, there’s brothers and sisters, there’s young wives, girlfriends, there’s parents. And, of course, where retained fire stations are concerned, you have fathers and sons serving together.

“Everyone must now stick together and support one another, people must be available to each other.”

The Mayor, David Hancox, 64, added: “The whole town is in a state of shock – everybody who works in the station is well known. This tragedy has left a community devastated.”

By late afternoon the pubs along Alcester’s high street had begun to fill up with locals struggling to grasp the enormity of the community’s loss. Many residents stood in silence outside the fire station before laying their flowers.

Sue Hawkins, 43, said: “I am stunned as anyone, this shows the risks that all firefighters take and the fact they put their lives on the line.

“Alcester is only a small town and we are really all just one big family. The Fire Service is always holding functions at the station and they even have a young firefighters kids’ club.

“They do so much for the local community it is so unbelievably sad that two from here look as though they have lost their lives in a fire.”

Douglas Topsell, whose youngest son is another part-time firefighter, said: “A tragedy like this just shouldn’t happen.

“Retained firefighters work a couple of hours a week to keep their families going. They are very focused and they do a wonderful job.”

Relatives of the missing firefighters were reluctant to talk about their grief before the grim task of recovering the bodies has been done. Specialist search and rescue teams normally deployed to earthquake zones and other disaster areas embarked on the long process of sifting through the charred shell of the plant yesterday.

Steve McGuirk, president of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association said: “This dreadful incident is a sharp and poignant reminder to us all of the risks faced by our firefighters on a daily basis and that there is no such thing as a routine incident.

“Every time our firefighters are called to an incident they put their lives on the line. Thankfully, firefighter deaths in the line of duty are rare, and the firefighting community is deeply shocked by this catastrophic event.”

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