A Bowness fish and chip shop has been left completely gutted by a major blaze that ripped through the building this morning.

Nearly 40 firefighters - some 30 wearing breathing apparatus - fought the flames that had spread from a range at Vinegar Jones on Lake Road.

They managed to prevent the fire from spreading to adjoining properties - the You and Me Chinese Restaurant and Barnardos.

"Our priority was to protect the buildings either side to prevent the fire from spreading into them and to tackle the fire itself," said Incident Commander Andrew Brodie, of Kendal Fire Station.

"We put crews into the two neighbouring buildings with breathing apparatus and hoses to check for fire, smoke spread and water damage.There was some smoke percolation into the Chinese restaurant."

Windermere crew manager Andrew Milling was one of the first fire fighters on the scene.

"There was heavy smoke coming out of the first and second floors when we arrived," he said. "The rear doors were open and everybody had evacuated."

"We could see through the smoke that the chip range was well alight and I managed to locate the owner who informed me that one of the pans on the range had flashed when he was cleaning it out."

"I immediately called for more manpower and upped the number of pumps to four."

Eight appliances were eventually called to the scene coming from Kendal, Windermere, Ambleside, Staveley, Coniston and Patterdale. The aerial ladder platform from Barrow was also called for.

Mr Millray added: "I initially got two men donned in breathing apparatus to go in and fight the fire with dry powder fire extinguishers and to locate the gas and electricity services and to isolate them."

"We got crews to go into the Chinese restaurant and the charity shop in breathing apparatus to make sure that there was no fire coming through the walls into their premises."

Mr Millray said the damage to Vinegar Jones was "total."

The Environment Agency has been informed because of the foam used to tackle the blaze. The local authority building inspector has also be informed because of the unstable state of the building.