The popular celebrity venue Chiltern Firehouse in London will remain closed until further notice after a fire forced about 100 people to evacuate on Friday lunchtime.
The London fire brigade (LFB) said 125 firefighters and 20 fire engines attended the blaze at the restaurant and luxury hotel on Chiltern Street in Marylebone after a 999 call was made at 2.52pm.
The fire started on the ground floor in the ducting of the Grade II-listed building, one of London’s first purpose-built fire stations, and spread to the second and third floors and the roof.
It raged for six hours before a firefighter near the scene said it was “completely under control”, adding that the four-storey hotel will probably need a “large refurbishment”.
André Balazs, the owner of Chiltern Firehouse, confirmed no one had been hurt in the fire, and said it was “fully contained” by 9.30pm. “Our guests and staff safely evacuated.”
In a statement, the LFB said the cause of the fire was not yet known: “Crews worked hard over a number of hours in challenging circumstances in a complex historic building and successfully contained the fire to one property, preventing it from spreading to neighbouring properties.
“Firefighters will remain on scene throughout the night, damping down hotspots.”
The restaurant is on the ground floor of the building, and an eyewitness said they had been told the fire had “started in the kitchen” and then “went upstairs”.
“The restaurant was emptied and there [were] lots of very glamorous people milling around outside, shivering,” the witness added. “They were very smartly dressed and I don’t think they expected to be waiting in the cold … You can smell the smoke outside but I did not see any flames.”
Another eyewitness, who works nearby, said he saw “the whole street full of smoke”.
“There was really thick smoke and it got into the other street as well … the visibility was awful,” Guy Fischman, 23, from Richmond, London, told PA.
By 5pm, the road had been closed off, he said, because of the number of fire engines trying to fight the fire.
“[The fire] definitely got bigger than expected. I didn’t expect it to get so big seeing as the fire brigade got there quite early,” he said. “The whole street was shut off and you could see the smoke from quite far away … it was crazy.”
He added that he was “in complete shock” about seeing the thick smoke and flames: “My coat stinks of smoke right now … I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that in the UK or in London.”
Crews of firefighters from across London were deployed to the scene, including from Euston, Kensington and Chelsea, Paddington, Soho and West Hampstead fire stations.
By 5.30pm, about two hours after the fire started, thick black smoke was billowing from the roof and firefighters began using an aerial platform to pump water on to the area.
Videos on social media showed flames at the top of the building being doused by fire officers on a crane, while smoke comes out of the roof.
LFB firefighters said a cordon was likely to be in place overnight, preventing access to the streets surrounding the five-star hotel.
Shortly after it opened in 2014, the restaurant was reported to be “single-handedly feeding the celebrity sections of the tabloids”, a place where paparazzi “loll and glower, ready to pounce on the luminaries who swarm [there] like candle-crazed moths”.
It was given 5/10 for value for money and 7/10 for food by restaurant reviewer Marina O’Loughlin, and described as a place that “seems to be almost permanently accessorised by Kate Moss”.
Bill Clinton, Bono, David Cameron, Keira Knightley and Lindsay Lohan have been photographed at the venue in the past. Madonna and Naomi Campbell are also among its celebrated clientele.
Balazs said: “It is with heartfelt gratitude and appreciation that we watched a remarkable 120 firefighters from [more than] 14 stations rapidly descend on what they told me was a hugely sentimental building for so many of them.
“We know in fact one of those who rushed to the Chiltern Firehouse this evening had been stationed in the building when it was a fire station 30 years ago. I am truly grateful to all of them as I am sure that this is not the Valentine’s Day evening they had in mind.”
Source: theguardian.com
