Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. 25th January, 2016. FIREFIGHTERS are tackling a major fire this afternoon. A thick plume of black smoke is hanging over Cowes as up to 40 firefighters tackle the blaze. Some residents and businesses have been evacuated while others are being warned to keep their windows shut after the fire broke out in Medina Village at about A 200m cordon is currently in place around the site, now understood to be a car workshop off Bridge Road. Dozens of boats and cars are understood to be at the site. Credit: uknip/Alamy Live News
Cowes,Isle of Wight Monday 25th January 2016 FIREFIGHTERS are tackling a major fire this afternoon. A thick plume of black smoke is hanging over Cowes as up to 40 firefighters tackle the blaze. Some residents and businesses have been evacuated while others are being warned to keep their windows shut after the fire broke out in Medina Village at about A 200m cordon is currently in place around the site, now understood to be a car workshop off Bridge Road. Dozens of boats and cars are understood to be at the site. The smoke can be seen across the Solent in Hampshire. Four crews from Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, from Wickham, Portchester, Emsworth and Waterlooville, are travelling over from Portsmouth to help their colleagues from the island's fire service. Service on the Cowes floating bridge has been suspended while the car ferry between East Cowes and Southampton is suspended while the harbour is closed. A boom has been put across the River Medina to prevent contamination. A spokesman for Hampshire Constabulary, which is helping with the incident, said: "Residents in East Cowes may be seeing a lot of black smoke being blown towards the area and we are therefore asking them to keep their windows shut as a precaution." Eyewitness Alex Gardner, a naval architect at Sustainable Marine Energy in nearby Trinity Wharf, said: "Emergency services are still on site working to control the fire, although we can still see flames over the top of some of the smaller sheds. "And there is the occasional loud bang we can hear from the other side of the river, by the sounds of things canisters of some kind going off. "We noticed the smoke first and went to see where it was all coming from. From our angle it looked like some of the flames were a similar height to the old crane in the yard. "Although there's no more thick black smoke, we can now see some of the damage done by the fire, in the big shed the roof has caved in, and some of the walls have co
Size: 5634px × 3753px
Photo credit: © uknip / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: jkr, news, newsinpictures, pictures, uk, uknip
