Huge fire rips through seaside amusement arcade with neighbours warned to shut windows

A seaside fairground has been cordoned off after a huge fire ripped through an amusement arcade on Boxing Day.

Police are guarding Ocean Beach Pleasure Park in South Shields, South Tyneside, following the second suspect fire at the fairground in a month.

Daylight revealed the devastated blackened shell of the building, which went up in flames shortly after 6pm on Boxing Day.

Firefighters spent almost 10 hours at the site until the emergency was declared over at 4am on Saturday.

Police remain at the Sea Road open air entertainment venue, one of the North East’s premier coastal attractions.

Just a month ago, a blaze was tackled at a fish and chip restaurant adjoining the now destroyed amusement arcade.

An arson investigation was launched after it went up in flames in the early hours of Wednesday, November 26.

A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said after the previous fire: ‘Shortly after 1.30am we were alerted to a fire at a premises in the Ocean Beach Amusement Park area of South Shields.

‘Emergency services attended, and thankfully, no-one is reported to have been injured in the incident.’

The spokesperson added that ‘the incident is being treated as suspected arson’.

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service said it had received numerous 999 calls from the public at around 6.15pm alerting it to the latest fire on Boxing Day.

A spokesperson said the brigade would be working with police to try to identify the cause of the blaze.

It had initially asked people to stay away from the area and to close their doors and windows for safety reasons.

The fire service said: ‘We got quite a few calls from the public. Just after 4am was the last application told to leave.

‘At the height of the incident we had six fire engines, specialist appliances and four officers on scene.

‘We cannot confirm the origin of the fire at this time, and we ask the public to keep away from the immediate area.

‘We would like to thank Northumbria Police and North East Ambulance Service for their assistance.’

Several officers and patrol vehicles remained at the scene and a cordon was in place around part of the pleasure park, which is currently closed for the winter.

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