HORRIFIED Weymouth residents awoke to the sound of explosions as fire tore through a car park destroying vehicles.

Residents of Chelwood Gate, Chickerell, were woken at 2am yesterday as a mystery blaze took hold of three caravans, a car and a campervan parked just metres from their homes. Gas canisters exploded in the fire, which also damaged fencing and a shed.

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service say the cause of the fire is under investigation and Dorset Police are appealing for witnesses.

Chelwood Gate resident John Yates woke to hear a ‘popping’ sound as the fire reached gas canisters and they exploded. He called the fire brigade.

Mr Yates said: “It was pretty horrific. There were explosions going off all the time.

“The biggest explosion was when the petrol tank went off, it was quite an explosion – I couldn’t describe it, but even indoors I had to take a step back.”

Mr Yates thought the fire might be suspicious and said he didn’t believe the incident would have happened if the street lights in the road had been on.

Neighbour Danny Alcock agreed. He said: “With no lights, nobody’s going to see anything apart from the glow of the fire.”

Streetlights in residential areas of Dorset are now turned off for several hours at night, with some communities fearing it is aiding criminal activity.

Mr Alcock added that smoke billowed down the road and debris from the fire flew overhead.

He said: “They were like missiles, it was like something out of a film.”

Lukasz Liro and his family were woken up.

He said: “There were four really big bangs. The firemen arrived a few seconds later.”

Alexandra Road backs onto the car park where the fire took place.

Resident Robert Ray said firefighters were on scene for most of the night.

He said: “It was massive and the flames were higher than my house. There were massive explosions.”

He added that the wind had been blowing the flames.

Mr Ray said: “We are all lucky it wasn’t any worse.”

Fire and police investigators were on scene Sunday morning assessing the damage and trying to identify the cause of the blaze.

Fire investigator with Dorset Fire and Rescue Service, Clem Stanley, said the fire started just after 2am and destroyed three caravans, a car and a campervan, as well as damaging fencing and sheds nearby.

He said: “The cause is still under investigation.”

He added that a whole-time and retained crew from Weymouth and a retained crew from Portland were called to tackle the blaze. Mr Stanley said: “When I arrived the fire had been extinguished and crews were damping down but there obviously had been a serious fire.

“There were gas canisters and there were explosions.”

Four further gas canisters were pulled from the blaze and cooled down so that they did not explode.

Fire investigators and Dorset Police are appealing for witnesses and anyone with information about the fire or its cause to come forward and call police on 101.