A FIRE broke out at a restaurant near Bournemouth seafront on Saturday afternoon.

Fire crews rushed to Hot Rocks shortly after 4.30pm after the fire started in a sign at the front of the building.

A witness said: "I was meant to be having a stag do meal inside with several mates, we turned up and saw it on fire. Crazy."

Bournemouth Echo:

Firefighters from Westbourne, Springbourne, Redhill, Christchurch and Poole attended along with the aerial ladder platform from Westbourne.

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Police also attended and a closure was put in place in Exeter Road and Bath Road between the BIC roundabout and the Westover Road roundabout.

Bournemouth Echo:

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue fire investigation officer Steve Ansell said: “We believe the fire started in the front of the building, potentially around a light fitting although that’s to be identified later on to the cause.

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“The fire since spread into the roof space. It’s a relatively small fire and the crews have worked hard taking tiles off of the roof using the aerial ladder platform and have also put water onto the fire to extinguish it.

“At this stage we believe the fire is extinguished. We’re going to be around ventilating, making sure the property is safe inside.

“We have two sectors; a sector at the front and a sector at the back with crews working in each.”

He said there had been no injuries and everyone had safely evacuated the building.

Bournemouth Echo:

He said: “Crews got here within a few minutes of the initial call which is fantastic to hear.”

Mr Ansell described the damage to the inside of the building as “minor”.