TWO HOTELS are on fire in Sandown this morning (Sunday).

Tarvic2 and St Moritz, two adjacent hotels on Sandown seafront, are ablaze.

The Fire and Rescue Service are in attendance to tackle the fire.

Watch below:

Videos from Cameron Ware.

UPDATE Sunday, 1pm 

An onlooker said: “It’s been going well over two hours now.

”I think it started in the derelict space between the hotels but then spread to Tarvic2 and St Moritz.”

Another said: “I’ve never seen anything like it. The flames were going through the roof.

”They had to rip the tiles off to access the inside.”

UPDATE Sunday, 2pm 

Julion Jayerajah, owner and manager of St Moritz, said: "I was at the shops and was driving home when I saw the smoke.

"St Moritz will be unusable. It’s been a hard morning. It's not everyday your house burns down.

"The insurance will cover it but I've already had to turn away two coaches. We've got a fully booked hotel the next two weeks, I don't know what we'll do."

UPDATE Sunday, 2.30pm 

Engines from Bembridge, Ventnor, Shanklin, Sandown, Ryde, Newport and Southsea are on the scene tackling the blaze.

UPDATE Sunday, 4pm 

Jeff Walls, Fire and Rescue duty officer for the incident, said: "We were called to an incident that had started on the ground floor between two hotels and that rapidly escalated to affect the hotels either side.

"We've got eight fire engines here, two aerial appliances and our command unit here, so this is quite a large scale incident for us. As a result of the resources we've got here, we've called on our colleagues from Hampshire and they've brought over some support pumps as well.

"As it stands, we've largely knocked back the fire fighting. Anyone inland from Sandown should shut their windows as there is still smoke heading that way.

"We've reached the stage where we're starting to damp down, but this is quite a large incident so I can see it lasting for the next few hours.

"There's around 50 firefighters on scene but we're starting to reduce those numbers fairly soon.

"There has been a lot of fire damage and water damage so we don't forsee those hotels being used in the immediate future.

"We've got a fire investigator on site so we're starting to work with him now to try and ascertain the cause of the fire.

Jeff said that everyone inside the hotel was accounted for and there were no injuries reported.

UPDATE Monday, 8am

Firefighters were on the scene all night damping down the hotels.

The Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service control room said they received the stop message from firefighters on the ground at 6.24am.

Firefighters will return to the site to carry out investigations into the fire.

UPDATE Monday, 10am

A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service said: "Two appliances from Newport Fire Station, including the aerial appliance, have returned to the scene this morning (Monday) to carry out site checks.

"A full investigation into the incident will be carried out, with a fire investigation team due to arrive on site this morning."

Further details will be issued in due course.

The following diversion is in place:

Isle of Wight County Press:

Photo courtesy of Island Roads.