Garage fire in Old Redbridge Road in Southampton

Dozens of firefighters and police officers rushed to Everyway Solutions Body Shop in Redbridge on Wednesday morning following reports of a fire.

Emergency services were called to the scene on Old Redbridge Road at around 6.40am.

Picture by Jenny Underdown

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The car garage was engulfed in flames and thick clouds of black smoke could be seen across the areas of Redbridge and Millbrook.

The incident caused travel chaos as roads in the area were closed to keep motorists and the emergency services safe.

One resident, a retired Southampton man, of Gover Road told our reporter at the scene: "We were woken up at just before 7am by loads of sirens.

"We normally don't think much about sirens because we back onto the main road but this morning there were so many we checked out our windows.

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"We could see a load of black smoke near to the roundabout and at first we thought it was a house fire. We've been told now that it's the Nissan garage that was on fire."

Another resident of Gover Road said that they could not see flames but did see "a huge cloud of thick black smoke".

She added: "The smell of burning is really strong. You open your door and get hit by the smell."

By Lucy James

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Firefighters on scene came from Redbridge, St Mary’s, Hightown, Fareham, Eastleigh, Beaulieu, Lyndhurst, Hamble, Fleet and Ringwood.

The building was 100 per cent damaged by the flames and the stop message came in for fire crews at 12.08pm.

The fire was extinguished using two breathing apparatus, six jets and an aerial ladder platform.

Redbridge Road, the Redbridge roundabout and the Redbridge flyover were closed outbound by police, and the Redbridge Causeway was shut in both directions.

All outbound traffic from Southampton was being diverted away from Mountbatten Way.