DOZENS of firefighters — from every Isle of Wight fire station —were drafted in through the night to tackle a blaze at the derelict lower site of Christ the King College.

Crews from all ten fire stations worked through the night to control and eventually extinguish the fire, which was in the roof space of the single storey building on Wellington Road, Carisbrooke.

The building is also the former Trinity Middle School.

The crews used a total of 28 breathing apparatus in the major incident.

Fire engines were sent from Newport, Cowes, East Cowes, Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, Freshwater, Yarmouth, Ryde and Bembridge.

A spokesperson from the IW Fire Service said: "The building, due for demolition, had a fire in the roof space, measuring 50m by 70m.

"The initial call came through at 11.08pm and we weren't expecting the incident to be so big at first, as we only had one call from the public.

"But we were soon asked for more support. It kept us very busy through the night."

Four appliances from Hampshire were also sent over for fire cover purposes.

The fire was out by 4.18am this morning (Tuesday) but a reinspection of the site is happening at 7am.