Iconic village featured on hit show 'Doc Martin' 'destroyed' as fire engulfs store
CORNWALL, UNITED KINGDOM: Port Isaac, the village made famous by the TV drama show ‘Doc Martin,’ saw a huge blaze of fire engulf a car and then a cooperative store nearby. While the police ordered the residents to stand back and away from the fire as the firefighters fought the flames, it has not yet been confirmed if there were any casualties or injuries. The store that caught fire has also been famously featured on the show starring Martin Clunes as the grumpy doctor.
The vehicle sustained major damage and was “completely destroyed." The shop’s repairs from the damages inflicted by the fire are reportedly expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars. As a reference to the village’s claim to fame, one of the bystanders at the incident had also gone on to jokingly ask, "Where's PC Joe Penhale when you need him?" as per The Sun. The fire had taken place at around 9.30 pm on Sunday, February 26.
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What happened in Port Issac?
The first calls made to emergency responders were immediately after the fire broke out, with the caller warning them about the car catching fire. However, subsequent messages came in with more distressing news that the fire had spread to the shop nearby. The fire engines had come in from the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service in Delabole, with backup crews from Bodmin and Wadebridge. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
"Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used two high-pressure hose reel jets to extinguish the premises and the vehicle… The vehicle was completely destroyed by fire and a proportion of the shop front was damaged by heat and fire," a representative for the fire service had said.
How did ‘Doc Martin' put Port Isaac on the map?
'Doc Martin' is a comedy show that is set in the fictional village of Portwenn. Well, this answers the question as the real location was actually Port Isaac, a fishing village located on the coasts of the North of Cornwall. The show stars Martin Clunes as the angry Dr Martin Ellingham and co-stars Caroline Catz, Jessica Ransom, Ian McNeice, Stephanie Cole, and Eileen Atkins. The show follows Clunes’ character, a surgeon, as he relocates to a sleepy village from being a big-town surgeon after developing a phobia of blood.
