BoomTown Fair Festival Fire Destroys More Than 80 Cars
Dozens of burnt-out wrecks bear witness to the intensity of the inferno that swept through the parked vehicles.
Saturday 13 August 2016 22:52, UK
An investigation has been launched after a blaze tore through a car park at a music festival, destroying more than 80 cars.
At its height, six fire crews battled the inferno at the BoomTown Fair Festival near Winchester in Hampshire on Friday afternoon.
The blaze, which broke out on the second day of the four-day festival where Leftfield, Damian Marley, Madness and the Levellers were due to perform, left behind it the burnt-out wrecks of dozens of cars.
It is the latest incident to blight the event in recent years.
In 2014, a 31-year-old woman found slumped unconscious in a toilet at the festival later died in hospital.
The previous year Oxfam steward Ellie Rowe, 18, from Glastonbury, Somerset, died at after taking the horse tranquilliser ketamine.
An inquiry is under way into the cause of the blaze, which started shortly before 4.15pm.
A fire and rescue spokesman said: "On arrival firefighters were faced with a large blaze involving approximately 80 vehicles, all of which were destroyed in the fire, but fortunately no injuries were reported.
"The Boomtique campsite next to the car park was evacuated as a precaution, but suffered no damage."
During the fire, festivalgoer Luke Machin tweeted: "Things are really heating up @BoomTownFair as a car fire takes hold."