Firefighters from Street among 10 crews who tackled fire in the centre of Wellington

Firefighters from Street were among 10 crews who tackled a fire in the centre of Wellington overnight.

At around 11.15pm last night (October 20), seven fire appliances from Wellington, Taunton, Bridgwater and Wiveliscombe, together with specialist support vehicles from Burnham-on-Sea, Street and Bridgwater, attended a fire in a three-storey property, under renovation, at North Street, Wellington, after receiving multiple calls from local residents who could see smoke issuing from the ground floor.

On arrival of initial crews they confirmed the first floor was well alight and set to work accessing the building to try and locate occupants, as it was not clear if the property was occupied or not.

Crews made good and steady progress bringing the fire under control, which took hold and spread throughout the open building construction.

At 12.15am they were able to confirm that there were no persons reported as being in the building, but it took them until around 3.30am to confirm that the incident was under control and the fire was extinguished, using 10 breathing apparatus, hose reel jets and ladders while continuously using thermal imaging cameras to monitor hotspots and confirm the fire was fully extinguished.

The fire, which started accidentally, caused 25 per cent fire damage and 100 per cent smoke damage.

Once the building and scene was made safe, duty of care was left with the police carrying out scene preservation to allow for further fire investigation. There were no casualties.