9th June 2008

Fire at Fitness First for Women

On 26th June 2008, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service Mobilising and Communication Centre received an emergency call trigged by the automatic smoke alarm at the commercial property of Fitness First for Women in Queens Road, Brighton.

The call came in at 00:47 and firefighters from Brighton & Hove fire stations were first to attend the scene at 00:53. On arrival crew were faced with a heavily smoke filled building, they used breathing apparatus to enter the property with hose reel jets to undertake a search and rescue operation.

The fire started on the basement floor of the 5-storey building. Fire Fighters worked extremely hard to contain the fire in the basement and prevent it from spreading despite the excessive amount of smoke generated by the fire. Smoke damage was caused to all 4 floors above the basement in the 5-storey building.

In total 60 Firefighters from East Sussex and West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service's were called to the incident to tackle, control and extinguish the blaze. Relief crews arrived at the scene at 4am, by 5.35am the incident was controlled. The Fire Investigation Officer will continue with the investigation to determine the cause of the fire. The Incident Commander Richard Fowler said

"The automatic smoke alarm at Fitness First for Women alerted East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service in the early stages of the fire, which enabled the Crew to minimise the damage caused by the fire to the building. This incident provides a powerful reminder of how important it is to have working fire alarm systems and smoke alarms in your homes and places of work to provide early warning in case of fire and safeguard all those concerned".

East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service can offer free home safety visits and smoke alarms to homes and businesses in the County of East Sussex and the City of Brighton & Hove. For further information contact East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service Community Safety Team on 0800 1777069.