Two fire crews from St Mary’s rushed to a house on Burgess Road in Swaythling just after 5pm on Saturday and used breathing apparatus, two jets and one hose reel jet to put out the fire.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that four outbuildings on Burgess and Honeysuckle Roads, which neighbours told the Echo were sheds, their contents and one tree all sustained damage.
A video shared by Callum Gibbs showed the massive flames behind the house. (Image: Callum Gibbs) Rain poured down during one of the afternoon’s heavy showers, but the flames continued to grow into the sky.
The incident prompted 33 calls to 999 as neighbours rushed to take action, reporting the fire that was positioned opposite the Burger King restaurant.
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Tom Dyer, a student who lives on a neighbouring road, said he was next to the fast food venue when he saw a “huge cloud of smoke rising”.
“We figured out quickly that it had caught a tree but I don’t know how it could’ve caught so quickly, you would’ve thought it would be wet from the rain,” he said.
“There’s loads of trees and that could’ve happened to any of them, accidents happen.”
Rain poured down but the video shared by Callum Gibbs showed how the fire continued regardless. (Image: Callum Gibbs) One of the neighbours on Burgess Road, a 22-year-old student, said all he could think of was how far it would spread.
Hampshire fire issued a thank you statement to the 33 people who called 999 to report the fire.
“I’m not surprised so many people called,” the 22-year-old student said.
The state of the tree the morning after the fire. (Image: Newsquest) “All I was thinking was how far will it spread, because when it caught the tree those flames were getting quite high, from where we were anyway, we just thought could it spread to us.”
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A Honeysuckle Road resident said that they first thought the fire was coming from a University of Southampton construction site on Burgess Road.
The construction site on Burgess Road, which is opposite the house where the fire was. (Image: Newsquest) They said: “I had to shut the windows because I was scared of all the smoke but luckily it was windy and much didn’t come in.
“To start with we were really scared, but the fire engines came fast.”
A spokesperson for HFRS told the Echo: “The service would like to thank those neighbours who promptly called 999 to report the fire, our control room received 33 calls.”