A COMMERCIAL building near Ilchester was badly damaged by fire yesterday – with crews still on the scene this morning.

The incident, just outside Ilchester, was reported at just after 6.20pm on Thursday (July 13) and saw more than a dozen crews sent to the scene to tackle the blaze.

Crews from Axminster, Taunton, Bridgwater, Burnham On Sea, Glastonbury, Street, Wellington, Yeovil, Castle Cary, Ilminster, Martock, Somerton and Wincanton were involved.

“Fire control received a call from a member of the public reporting smoke issuing from a building just outside Ilchester,” a spokesperson from the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said.

“Control immediately mobilised three fire appliances from Yeovil, Martock and Somerton, along with a supporting officer.

“While on route due to local knowledge crews requested a water carrier to attend which came from Yeovil.”

Once on the scene, additional pumps were requested, they said, as well as an additional water carrier.

By 9.30pm, crews were ‘still working hard to extinguish the fire that is involving a commercial property measuring approximately 20x25m’, the spokesperson said.

The fire was in a single-storey building with an internal mezzanine floor and the blaze had spread throughout the unit and breached the roof.

At just after midnight, firefighters were still working to extinguish the blaze, and damping down areas to prevent it restarting and spreading.

By 4am this morning (July 14), crews were isolating hotspots and damping down the building and firefighters remain at the scene ‘to continue to monitor the temperature within the property and extinguish any further hotspots’.

They would remain at the scene in the coming hours, the spokesperson said.