A VAN and a taxi were damaged in separate blazes in a town centre parking bay and outside a train station.

Firefighters were called at 3.33pm last Thursday (October 19) to a van fire near Ross-on-Wye’s Market House.

The vehicle was parked in a loading bay in High Street when the driver noticed smoke coming from the vehicle before it suddenly burst into flames.

A passerby, visiting from Birmingham, ran to a shop and grabbed a fire extinguisher in an attempt to put out the blaze, but fire crews had already arrived by the time he returned.

The fire was extinguished by 4.10pm when the road reopened.

On Saturday afternoon (October 21), a taxi was destroyed when it went up in flames outside Chepstow railway station.

Witnesses saw smoke come from the dashboard, before the vehicle dramatically caught light around 4.45pm.

An eyewitness said: "It was smoking slightly from the dashboard. The smoke was getting steadily worse so the driver called the fire brigade as it was clearly not far off being in flames. Within a few minutes it had caught fire and we all stepped away."