Fierce sunbed fire ruins Black Country tanning shop - PICTURES and VIDEO
More than 30 firefighters were needed to tackle a severe blaze at a Black Country tanning salon.
A suspected electrical fault saw one bed 'pop' and left Adelle's Tanning in Castle Street, Coseley, up in flames on Wednesday.
Seven crews from Bilston, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Brierley HIll, West Bromwich and Wednesbury rushed to the scene to put out the blaze after being called at 5.40pm.
Residents from a nearby block of flats were warned to keep their windows shut.
Firefighters got to the scene within five minutes and managed to contain the flames before they spread to neighbouring businesses including a pet shop.
Bilston and Tettenhall crew commander Warren Davies said: "Early indications are it is an accidental fire from a sun bed. It has spread quite quickly.
"Luckily the woman who was in the shop at the time managed to everyone out.
"She heard a pop and went and turned the fuses and by the time she came back there were flames.
"Crews were here within five minutes which has enabled us to put a good stop on the fire.
"Another five minutes without any firefighting action and it would have spread to the pet shop next door.
"It will have been an electrical fault of some sort. That is not established yet but we are still carrying out our investigation.
"There are a few hot spots we have to keep our eye on so what the crews will do now is come back.
"They have stripped everything out and wet it the best that they can and they will come back every four to six hours now and just damp down hotspots.
"We will be here all through the night and possibly tomorrow in the day as well until we are happy we can close the incident. We have to be mindful of the shops either side.
"We cordoned it off from the end of the road initially because it was a severe fire with a lot of active smoke.
"We are telling the flats above to the right to keep their doors and windows shut.
"All of the other shops were closed for a while and then as soon as we were happy that we had got the fire surrounded and it was not going to spread we pulled the cordons in bit by bit to enable them to continue their work and business."
An eyewitness said the smoke could be seen from down the high street and said it was not the first time the road had seen a business on fire.
An anonymous worker from a nearby shop said: "I was here and smoking outside when I got told about the fire. Kids said the tanning shop was on fire.
"I could not same the flames but I could see the smoke. Last year we had the same thing when there was a fire at the butchers shop down the road."
The blaze in Bilston was one of several in the region on Wednesday – including in Tividale, Sandwell, where five fire crews were tackling a fire at a factory unit fire in Hainge Road.
