Gear test at home

Yachting journalists at IPC Inspire found they had a gear test on their door-step today when a massive blaze broke out just a quarter of a mile from the Blue Fin Building in Southwark Street, SE London.

High resolution binoculars were trained on flames 150ft above the rooftops with dense black smoke rising to twice that height.

It turned out to be a fire in a five storey Government immigration office in Chancery Lane.

We hope no-one was hurt. The binoculars worked well.