Firefighters 'still investigating' fire that tore through Southsea property this morning

The fire is thought to have started in the basement flat of Solent apartments, 16 and 17 South Parade, and neighbours suggested the incident could be linked to a gas leak – although fire crews are still investigating. Multiple fire engines, police vehicles and an ambulance were at the scene and a section of the road was cordoned off.

Part of Clarence Road was also closed by emergency services. Fire alarms were sounded at roughly 9.15am.

South Parade resident Joel Miller said: ‘I looked out the window and saw smoke coming past so I came out the front door to investigate a little bit. There was big black smoke billowing from the basement flat next door.

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‘The occupant was stood in the door covered in black and clearly panicked - in a state of shock for sure. I asked if anyone had called the fire and she couldn’t really answer me so I called the fire department. I came back in and set our fire alarm off to tell everyone to get out of our building. Then within four or five minutes, the fire service were here.’

Joel said he also called an ambulance for the woman covered in soot from the smoke and that she was taken by paramedics as a precaution.

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Charlotte Agnew, who lives in a neighbouring building, said: ‘We woke up to the alarm going off - at first I thought it was a drill. I could smell smoke in the flat and I opened the door and there was smoke in the hallway so we really quickly got changed, grabbed our stuff and went out. There were loads of fire engines outside and we asked someone - apparently it was coming from next door so I was surprised that there was so much smoke in our building. Luckily, we’re okay. I was quite surprised but also quite scared because I didn’t know where it was coming from and something like this has not happened to us before.’

Crew manager Dave Burt, from Southsea Fire Station, said the cause of the fire has not been identified. Firefighters from Southsea, Cosham, Havant and Portchester all attended.