A hotel in Exeter thought to be the oldest in England has begun to collapse as a huge fire continues to burn more than 24 hours after it broke out.
Gas from a ruptured main has fuelled the flames of the blaze that began on Friday morning and has burned through the night.
Firefighters are still trying to contain the fire opposite Exeter cathedral in the centre of the city, which has gutted the historic Royal Clarence Hotel and ravaged a number of neighbouring historic buildings.
Although Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service said that “steady progress is being made”, no end to the blaze appears to be in sight.
“Crews have confirmed that a gas main has ruptured inside the hotel on the ground floor, which is now well alight,” a spokesman for the fire service said early on Saturday.
“Gas engineers are on site trying to isolate the gas supply. Crews are currently using four jets from four aerial platforms.”
Firefighters have been on the scene at Cathedral Yard since 5am on Friday. At its height, there were 150 firefighters at the scene and four aerial ladder platforms were being used to pump water from the river Exe on to the blaze.
Chief fire officer Lee Howell said: “We’re grateful no one has been hurt in this incident but the community has lost a historic building, which is a landmark of the city. The fire spread was compounded by the nature of these ancient buildings and their construction with common roof voids, which allowed the fire to spread unseen from the origin of the fire.
“We kept significant resources at the scene to ensure we were able to deal with every eventuality and we will continue to do everything we can to protect the heritage of this city.”
Twenty fresh fire engines were needed to relieve crews working overnight, the fire service said. At one point all personnel were forced to retreat from the fire over fears of a collapse.
Earlier on Friday, a fire brigade spokesman said the fire had started in the Exeter Gallery, which is opposite the cathedral. “That has [also] been completely destroyed,” he said, adding that it spread to the Clarence from there.
Stephen Pitman, south-west England area engineering manager for Wales & West Utilities, said switching off the gas supply to the burning buildings was proving to be difficult. Engineers had been on the scene since Friday afternoon.
“The fire has damaged gas service pipes supplying the affected properties. Our engineers are working to turn the gas supplies to those properties off,” Pitman said.
“This is a complex job due to the severity of the fire and the condition of the affected buildings. Our engineers have worked through the night and we will continue to support the Fire & Rescue Service as required until the fire is out,” he said.
Local historian Todd Gray said the hotel was “in the heart of what was not just the medieval city, but within the precincts of Roman Exeter”.
He said: “For 2,000 years this area has been the focus of the city’s religious and commercial life.”
The ground and first floors of the hotel were medieval and the upper floors were added in the late 1700s, when the building was renamed a hotel.
Gray told the BBC that the Clarence was “the building where they first declared themselves as a hotel. Before that happened [in the 1770s] we had inns, but they took the new French word and applied it to their building … this was the place to stay.”
He added: “What is so particularly heartbreaking about this loss is that these buildings escaped the Blitz of 1942 when so much of Exeter was destroyed.”
Efforts to fight the fire were consuming much of Exeter’s water supply. South West Water told customers in the city centre it had been forced to make alterations to its mains network to support the fire service.
“As a result, some customers in the city centre, and potentially in the Wonford area, may experience low pressure or discolouration of their water supply,” the company said in a statement. “The Royal Devon and Exeter, and Nuffield hospitals will not be affected.”
The cause of the fire was not believed to be suspicious.
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