Milborne St Andrew garage fire resident's reaction

The fire broke out whilst welding work was being carried out on a car in a garage on Hopsfield in Milborne St Andrew.

Four fire crews responded to the blaze before putting out a 200m cordon.

Nearby homes were evacuated and residents were directed to the local pub and village hall.

The fire broke out as a man was welding in a domestic garage (Image: Supplied)

READ: Milborne St Andrew: Car fire in garage full of flammable gas

The owner of the garage, who doesn't wish to be named, described to the Echo the moment he realised the fire had broken out.

He said: “It was sheer panic.

"My son was welding and working away in the garage on the car.

“He felt his legs were warm, looked up and it was up in flames (the car).

“When I got down there, there was nothing a bucket or hose could do. I got some water, but it made no difference and when I knew it was beyond my control. I called the fire service. 

"I just had to wait until they go there and just watch it burn - it felt like an age but it was no more than 15 minutes."

The car was in a garage which contained acetylene and other cylinders used for welding.

Acetylene is an extremely flammable gas and cylinders can explode if they get hot enough, which led to the cordon being set up by firefighters.

Four crews attended the blaze in Milborne (Image: Lottie Jarvis)

Fin Liddy, who works at the Royal Oak, happened to be in the pub for a meal at the time of the fire.

She said: "In here we probably had 50 to 100 people. We came in early for a meal.

“Literally ten minutes before we left everyone was evacuated.

“There was a possibility that we would have had to evacuate here, that’s why we had to stop serving food.

“It was good the community came together though – it was an interesting night.  We just feel bad for them.”

Lottie Jarvis and her family had to leave their homes and she praised the efforts of emergency services who responded to the fire.

The garage was completely burned out destroying the car along with many household items. (Image: Andy Jones)

She said: "I ran down the road with my children as they wanted to see the fire engines.

"We could see the fire from our back garden as it's pretty close only a garden and road between us.

"We all got evacuated in a 200m radius of the fire as it was dangerous because of the gas bottles/cylinders.

"We were all evacuated to the local village hall and pub until was safe at around 10.30pm.

"All of the fire and police crews were excellent."