Heavy smoke spread across a street in Heaton Thursday night as a fire broke out in an outbuilding.
Several fire trucks were called into the lane of Sackville Road in Heaton just after 5 p.m. after seeing smoke billowing from an outhouse at the back of a Tyneside apartment complex.
The flames do not appear to have reached the residential buildings at the intersection with Stanmore Road, but have caused significant damage to the outbuilding.
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It was left blackened and burnt on the outside with a visible hole in the roof, from which smoke could still be seen for about an hour after firefighters arrived.
Although no one is believed to have been injured in the blaze, it alarmed many neighbors who gathered around the cordon on Thursday evening.
Onlookers Margaret Hume arrived at the scene around 5:30 p.m., after her husband smelled smoke from their neighboring house.
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
At around 6 p.m. Margaret said: “It’s always smoldering. The fire department was there when we arrived, at first we thought it was coming from the other side of the road but then we saw smoke coming out of the garage at the back of the apartments.
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Another neighbor told Chronicle Live: “The smoke was very dark – I had to put on my mask when I went out into the garden because you couldn’t breathe.
“It was dark and it was raining.
“It was so horrible. It really increased – you wonder how it started.”
The firefighters left the scene around 6:30 p.m., having managed to extinguish all the smoke.
The Northeast Ambulance Service was called to the scene, but the paramedics were subsequently dismissed after it became apparent that there had been no casualties.
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