No injuries as five storey house goes up in flames

Tuesday 10 July 2018

Guernsey Fire and Rescue Service spent the whole of Monday night, and the early hours of Tuesday morning, dealing with a fire at a five storey multi occupancy property in Lower Hauteville.

The flames could be seen across St Peter Port initially with plumes of black smoke seen emanating from the area for hours.

The initial call to emergency services is believed to have been made around 20:30 with a number of people dialling 999 as they could see the fire taking hold from a distance. Videos and images of the blaze were shared on social media with a number of people concerned about the occupants of the property and the location of the fire.

Pictured: An image taken of the fire which was widely shared on social media as the blaze took hold

It was quickly established that the fire was in Lower Hauteville, not Victor Hugo's house as some had initially feared from the direction the smoke was billowing from. The property was described as "multi occupancy" meaning it is split into flats with a number of residents. The call handlers at the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre told Express at 22:00 on Monday night that it was believed everyone had been safely evacuated. That has since been confirmed by the ambulance crews who attended the scene. 

Pictured: Image taken by Sarah Snell

Following the initial calls, firefighters were quickly on the scene, assisted by Guernsey Police and the St John Emergency Ambulance service. 

The Ambulance Service Communications Officer, Jim Cathcart, said; "an Incident Officer was sent to the scene and because of the potential risk of injury and heat exhaustion a double crewed ambulance was then requested to attend as precaution. It was very quickly established that a search of the building had been carried out and there were no casualties or injuries."

As everyone had safely left the building, the ambulance crew were able to focus on helping their emergency service colleagues. "Given that the fire was still burning and the warm weather conditions, the ambulance service remained on scene to provide extra bottled water for the firefighters to help reduce the risk of dehydration," said Mr Cathcart.

He said the doubled crewed ambulance was stood down once the fire was brought under control, but the Incident Officer remained on scene for a while longer to help monitor the welfare of firefighters. 

Guernsey Fire and Rescue were there until the early hours of the morning. Firefighters spent hours dousing the flames before maintaining a presence to ensure the area was safe and the site remained damp so it couldn't reignite. 

The road, Lower Hauteville, was closed until shortly before 06:00 on Tuesday morning, meaning it had been shut for almost 10 hours while the fire was dealt with.