A large fire at the former Seaton Height Hotel was finally extinguished by crews at around 12:30pm today (October 24) after burning for more than 20 hours.
Pictures seen on social media show the impact of the fire on the derelict hotel, which has been empty since 2006. A screenshot of a video sent to the Herald by resident Tom Reed, shows the scale of the fire and the emergency response, which shut the A3052 for several hours as fire crews tackled the fire.
Crews from Seaton, Colyton and Lyme Regis were sent out at 4.30pm to reports that a fire had broken out at the two-storey derelict building.
Within half an hour, two more crews, an aerial platform from Exeter and two water carriers from Ottery St Mary were called to the scene. The aerial platform doused water onto the scene from above.
At the height of the fire, 13 appliances were at the scene, including from neighbouring stations in Somerset and Dorset and Wiltshire.
Overnight, crews installed a 'fire-wall' and doused the boundary with water, the fire was then left to burn out itself and stopped from spreading further with the fire wall in place.
As from this morning (October 24) it has been scaled down allowing a controlled burn to take place until the fire reaches a natural break then reduced firefighting will recommence. No injuries have been reported.
In the most recent update on the Devon and Somerset fire and Rescue Service, they said: "Overnight fire crews have continued to cool the boundary using an Aerial Ladder Platform a water wall and one main jet.
"The incident has been scaled down to three pumps and crews are still damping down."
Crews from Torquay, Danes Castle, Axminster, Colyton, Honiton, Ottery St Mary, Seaton, Sidmouth, Tiverton, Ivybridge, Middlemoor, Clyst St George, Taunton, Wellington, Chard, Ilminster and Martock attended the incident at the derelict hotel.
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