THE importance of the Bronto aerial platform to enable firefighters to tackle a blaze in difficult situations was further emphasised when a Newton Abbot vehicle repair workshop was completely gutted by fire on Monday.

As firefighters fought the blaze at Teignbridge Vehicle Repairs, in Bradley Lane, they were warned by the owner Richard Hamling that there was an acetylene cylinder in the building.

Station manager Rod Schneider said they immediately pulled firefighters back, increasing the cordon to a safe distance and called in the Bronto from Torquay, so that they could tackle it from above.

There was huge controversy and protests last year when Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service proposed cutting back on its Bronto crews to save money, firefighters and the public maintaining it was putting finances before safety.

'While the use of the Bronto brought its own problems because of the adjoining units, its importance cannot be stressed enough,' said Mr Schneider.

A unit behind and below suffered some water damage and water also ran down the ramp into the nearby garage Combat Autos.

Access to another garage was affected while there was water ingress into Hanbury Engineering Services Ltd and the top floor of those premises was closed on Monday.

The alarm was raised at just after midnight when a nearby resident heard pops and bangs, looked out of the window and saw sparks, flames and smoke coming out of the workshop roof.

'The fire developed very very quickly and one hour into the job we received information from the owner that there was an acetylene cylinder in there,' said Mr Schneider.

There were two vehicles in the 20 metres by eight metres single storey workshop, both of which were burnt out. One was Mr Hamling's and the other a customer's. Equipment was also destroyed.

Mr Hamling, of Paignton, also has a branch of Teignbridge Vehicle Repairs in the Torbay Business Park, in Woodview Road, Paignton.

At the height of the blaze some 20 firefighters from Newton Abbot and Torquay were tackling the outbreak.

They used three main jets, a ground monitor, a hose reel and two sets of breathing apparatus.

Once the fire was out a number of firefighters remained at the scene for 24 hours to make sure the acetylene cylinder had cooled completely.

Because of the dangerous state of the building, the roof had collapsed, fire investigators were unable to enter the workshop to try to ascertain the cause until Tuesday morning.

The fire service's environmental pod was sent from Paignton to clear up and test the water run-off, some of which found its way into the Bradley Leat.

Officers from the Environment Agency also attended for several hours.

'We spoke to the owner of the premises and he thought he might have 150 litres of fuel oil on site.

'We were obviously concerned that might get into water courses because of the run-off and we checked the Bradley Leat and River Lemon and as a precaution we put some booms in the river to minimise the risk,' said an EA spokesman.

He added that they remained at the scene for several hours, checking the water courses and they were completely clear.