Fire at derelict building in Bridge Street, Northampton

Firefighters deal with "large-scale" blaze in Northampton town centre as emergency services close roads to traffic

Transcript

00:00 So we were first called around about 5.30 this morning to a fire in the building you can see

00:03 behind me. It's a disused nightclub on Bridge Street in Northampton Town Centre. On arrival

00:09 the crews found a really significant and developing fire. At its height of the incident we've had seven

00:14 of our fire engines here and as you can see behind we've got two of our high reach aerial

00:18 ladders which enable us to put water on the fire from above. I'm pleased to say we've made real

00:23 progress in knocking the fire down so what remains now is the hot spots that those aerial appliances

00:29 are putting water onto and I'm really pleased to say the fire hasn't spread to any adjoining

00:33 premises. So the specific building has been identified and what is the name of that building?

00:39 So it's the old Fat Cats nightclub, the disused building. And what advice would you give to anyone

00:44 at the moment with the road closures and like you said the smoke with the windows? So we have got

00:48 roads closed and we've worked with Northamptonshire Police to try and minimise our footprint. We're

00:52 obviously really mindful of the impact it has on residents and businesses. The roads that are

00:56 closed at the moment are Bridge Street, Angel Street, Fetters Street and part of St John Street.

01:02 However what we have done is made sure that all the bus routes are clear so the buses can still

01:06 operate. We will start to open up the roads as soon as we can but obviously we need to be really

01:11 mindful of both firefighter safety in terms of access for our staff but also the public safety

01:16 in terms of the smoke. If there are people in flats or businesses nearby, advice to them if

01:23 there's smoke, close the windows, stay inside. Is there any indication so far of what has caused

01:27 this fire? Very early to say because the fire is still ongoing we won't start an investigation

01:32 until it's out. Once that's done we'll start to work with fire investigators and police colleagues.