A popular restaurant in Cornwall narrowly escaped burning to the ground, after part of the premises caught on fire.

Rick Stein’s restaurant in Porthleven was damaged when the fire broke out shortly after 4am on Monday morning.

Fire fighters from Helston, Tolvaddon and Mullion attended the blaze, and were able to get the flames under control by 4.21am.

But the fire was so severe that Katerine Billing, incident commander for Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service, said that the restaurant was just minutes away from complete destruction.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, she said: “We were a maximum 15 mins away from the fire destroying the whole of the main restaurant.

"This would have meant a prominent business owner losing the opportunity to trade over the summer and would have spoilt the beauty of Porthleven and affected the economy of the whole village for the summer season.

"Whether it was arson or not is something that is still being investigated.”

The fire brigade was called by William Knight, a chef who works at the nearby Moonflower Restaurant.

William left work after closing down the restaurant and performing a deep clean, at around 1am, and went for a cigarette on a balcony above the restaurant.

From there he could hear an alarm going off and quickly called 101, but they said they would be unable to attend without knowing the exact location of the alarm.

Kind-hearted William volunteered to investigate the source of the alarm, and saw flames flickering inside the bin shed of the restaurant.

William said: “I called 999 and told them the location and they said they would send a unit out, and they arrived within five or ten minutes.

“Within five minutes it went through the roof and burned the trees at the back.

“I haven’t seen the damage but I think they had a lucky escape, I heard it was mainly just smoke damage in the restaurant.

“The fire service did a great job, they responded quickly and got the fire down nice and easy.”

Rick Stein’s restaurant declined to comment on the story, but confirmed that the restaurant has now reopened.

However Rick Stein took to Twitter following the incident, where he wrote: “Thanks to everyone who wrote concerned about the fire at Rick Stein in Porthleven.

“Just in a bin store next door thankfully. Open tonight.”

Speaking shortly after the event, a spokesperson for Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said: “Firefighters from Helston, Tolvaddon and Mullion have been dealing with a fully involved property fire tonight.

"At the height of the incident the incident was sectorised into two sectors, with Firefighters using four hose reel jets and two main jets to bring the fire under control.

"At 4.21am firefighters from Helston remain on scene, using breathing apparatus to damp down."