Major fire breaks out in Bristol car park with multiple vehicles ablaze as huge smoke plume fills the air
Doru Rotaru
Fire services said a number of vehicles were 'well alight' when they arrived to tackle the blaze, while an eyewitness reported seeing up to 10 vehicles up in smoke
A huge fire erupted in a car park in Bristol this morning, sending thick plumes of black smoke billowing into the air.
Avon Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that crews were in attendance, and assured members of the public they were working to get the inferno under control.
The service said: "On arrival, firefighters found multiple vehicles well alight and are using 45mm jets and high pressure hose reels to tackle the fire."
Firefighters from Patchway, as well as nearby Southmead, Temple and Thornbury were in place to fight the blaze.
The fire appeared to have erupted in front of a pair of Vauxhall garages
Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they were also at the scene, and said that some road closures had been established in the area "as a precaution", which have since been lifted.
The fire appeared to have broken out in front of a Vauxhall dealership and an accident repair centre, with dramatic footage showing flames engulfing vehicles as traffic filed past on the adjoining Gloucester Road.
Another video showed the inferno spiralling multiple metres into the air and spanning a number of stationary vans.
The site, in Patchway, just to the north of Bristol, is just minutes away from the nearby Cribbs Causeway shopping centre.
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One eyewitness told BristolLive he had seen "seven to 10" cars and vans aflame.
Traffic monitoring service Inrix said the A38 southbound was "partially blocked", and reported "queueing traffic due to building fire at Hayes Way."
The news comes just days after a huge fire broke out in Cannock in Staffordshire, prompting emergency services to declare a "very large scale incident".
Local businesses were told evacuate while 10 fire engines tackled the blaze, with eyewitnesses reporting the smoke stack was "blocking out the sun for miles around".
At the time, roads in the area were blocked off due to what a local motorway monitoring service called a "massive multi emergency service response".