FIREFIGHTERS were called a blaze in Old Town tonight at a clothes shop.

The fire, at the Style shop next to the Adver offices on Victoria Road, started shortly before 8.20pm and more than an hour-and-a-half later, firefighters were still trying to dampen the flames.

The road, from the Longs Bar down to the Advertiser offices, was cordoned off with tape and cars were unable to pass up or down the road as police vehicles, an ambulance and four fire engines swarmed the scene.

Firefighters from Westlea, Stratton and Swindon attended the scene. They said the blaze started in the basement and had spread to the ground floor.

An Adver security guard alerted the emergency services.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the building using a main hose and four pumps on the blaze, as well as ventilators to diffuse the smoke.

At one point a firefighter took a ladder up the side of the next property along to check inside. No-one was believed to have been in the building at the time.

Howard Tucker, who owns the Guitar School next door, was early to the scene since he was in the Kings Arms pub, on Wood Street, when he heard the news.

He said: “Somebody told me my shop was on fire, but it wasn’t, it’s the next store.

“It’s terrible, the smoke was coming out of that shop right into my guitar school.

“The smoke was gushing out, absolutely gushing out, going everywhere.”

He said that luckily all his music teachers who use the property in the evenings had already left, but he feared the smoke damage, particularly to instruments, would be extensive.

Watch manager Bryan Morris, who was in charge of the incident, said the cause of the fire was at this stage unknown and the damage and safety of the property would still need further investigation.

“There has been a basement fire in Style which burned through into the ground floor.

“We were facing quite a severe smoke logging and a well developed fire with smoke logging to the adjacent properties.

“At the moment we’re still putting the fire out and ventilating.

“It’s still flickering in between the floorboards.”