Fire destroys pub in South Cambridgeshire

Crews from Saffron Walden, Newport and Halstead were called to the scene of a fire in a flat above a pub in South Cambridgeshire last night.

Firefighters were called to join Crews from Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service at a property in Town Lane, Pampisford at 11:31pm.

On arrival, crews confirmed that a flat above a pub was completely alight.

Crews used Breathing Apparatus to attempt to extinguish the fire from inside the building, but were called out when floors began to collapse and the roof was identified as being unsafe.

Firefighters then surrounded the building with hoses to make sure the fire didn’t spread to neighbouring properties, which had thatched roofs.

Problems with water supply called for Halstead Crews to also attend with a water bowser, providing 12,000 litres of water to the scene on arrival. Cambridge Water arrived on the scene shortly later and were able to tweak valves to improve the strength of the water supply and the fire was extinguished by 3:50am.

A house at the back of the pub was heavily smoke-logged as a result of the fire, so crews worked together to evacuate the family and clear the property of smoke. A safety check was carried out and the family were safely back inside their home before crews left the scene.

Station Manager, Jon Ford, said: “Crews worked really hard and used a collaborative approach to tackle the fire as effectively as possible. There were a large number of thatched-roof properties in the area, so our focus here was to contain and extinguish the fire, and to prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings nearby.

"Due to the age of the pub, the fire spread quickly and we were sadly unable to save it.”

An investigation will be carried out to determine the cause of the fire.