A fire has caused significant damage to a pub after firefighters battled the blaze for several hours.
Bystanders heard explosions within the Somerset pub as the emergency crews tackled the fire on Saturday.
The blaze began in the kitchen of The Rosewood pub in Burnham-on-Sea at around 2pm, and customers and staff were evacuated from the premises as it began to spread.
Somerset Live reported eight fire engines from across Somerset were called to the fire on Love Lane, and crews worked to stop the fire spreading to a nearby Tesco, which was also evacuated.
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service's group manager Paul Cregan said: "There has been a significant amount of damage to the kitchen and the roof above it.
"However, through the crews' hard work, and taking some risks, we have managed to save at least 50 per cent of the pub.
"We also stopped the fire spreading to the adjacent Tesco, which was never really a danger, but there was some concern that it could potentially spread through the entire roof."
Fire crews from Burnham-on-Sea, Bridgwater, Taunton, Cheddar, Street, Nether Stowey and Wiveliscombe were all called to the scene.
The fire service has also issued a statement on what happened.
It reads: “Three fire appliances from Burnham-on-Sea and Bridgwater, together with an aerial ladder platform from Taunton, were initially mobilised to a fire in the kitchen of a public house. At the time of the call fire alarms were activating and Fire Control confirmed that staff were in the process of evacuating staff and customers.
“On arrival of the first crew, it was confirmed that smoke was issuing from the building and by 2:26pm it was requested that the attendance be increased to five appliances, which attended from Cheddar and the police were called for traffic duties and to close the road to assist with fire fighting.
“At 2:31pm crews confirmed the fire was spreading to the roof and increased the attendance to six fire appliances, which attended from Street and Taunton, together with a Command Support Vehicle from Wiveliscombe.
“At 3:15pm the attendance was once again increased by a further two fire appliances which have attended from Nether Stowey and Somerton (who were providing standby cover at Bridgwater fire station).
“At 4:40pm crews were making steady progress with the incident, which has been split into four sectors to allow for the most effective firefighting, due to the fire spread, proximity of the premises to other buildings and the amount of firefighters in attendance.
"At this time crews are fire fighting using hose reel jets and covering jets, as well as stripping roof tiles to access the fire, assisted by the aerial ladder platform.”
Somerset Live.
