Staff at a popular Dundee bakery were forced to flee a major fire on Tuesday.
The blaze broke out at Clarks Bakery on Craigowan Road in Charleston around 1.45pm after a chip pan burst into flames.
It is understood workers attempted to extinguish the fire but it grew out of control. Within minutes of evacuating the building the fire had spread to the roof and thick black smoke spewed into the air.
Strong winds made matters worse by fanning the flames, which destroyed everything inside the shop as well as most of the roof.
Fire crews from Macalpine Road were the first to be called to the scene and were joined by a command support unit as well as appliances from the Kingsway East and Blackness Road stations.
A total of 18 firefighters were at the incident and battled the fire for around 15 minutes using hose reel jets and breathing apparatus.
A cordon was in place around the area and police closed local roads causing disruption to the number 28, 29 and 14 bus services.
One of the first to arrive was Keith Dyer, station manager at Macalpine Road fire station.
He said: ”We had a call to a chip pan fire inside the bakery. We dispatched two appliances before the crews arrived there was a further call from a member of the public saying that the fire was through the roof and well developed, so we dispatched another two appliances.
”We committed crews to the building who used a hose. By the time they arrived the whole shop was engulfed, and in all fairness the staff had done well to get out.
”An aerial platform was used to observe the roof and make sure that the fire was out.”
Only two bakery staff were inside the shop when the fire took hold. Still dressed in their uniform they watched the drama unfold as firefighters moved in.
Alan Clark of Clarks Bakery arrived soon after the blaze was put out.
”The girls saw smoke coming from the thermostat and turned it off,” Mr Clark said. ”The next minute it burst into flames. By the time I got there the place was already burnt to the ground. It was over very quickly.”
Loss adjusters are due to visit the fire-ravaged site, but Mr Clark admitted it was too early to say what would happen to the former bakery.
”One of the firefighters told me that he had never seen a building go up so fast,” he added. ”The heat must have been tremendous because the counters and till have been melted. Even the money inside the till was melted.”
The bakery sat in a small retail complex which contains a fast food take-away and large convenience store. Luckily, the units on either side of the bakery are vacant and suffered only smoke damage.
Billy Barrie (27) was at the scene as the fire took hold. He had intended to visit the nearby post office but instead filmed the drama on his phone show above.
”It was quite a surprise, I was just on my way to the post office when I saw the smoke bellowing from the shop,” said Mr Barrie, who works for Tayside Contracts.
”It was quite small at that time. The staff was standing across the road and I asked them what had happened.
”They told me that they had left the chip pan on and it had burst into flames. They evacuated from the shop and called the fire brigade.
”You are talking the space of five minutes before the flames escalated into a full-on blaze.”