80 firefighters called to tower block blaze
80 firefighters attended a fire at Markham Tower, in Bowers Avenue, Mile Cross on Monday 26th September.
Brenda Arthur, Norwich City Council leader said: “We would like to thank our staff and all our tenants for remaining calm and carrying out our evacuation procedure to the letter. It’s a tribute to everyone involved that no-one was hurt. We understand this is an upsetting time for all those affected by the fire. Some of our tenants have already indicated they would like to stay with family and friends while repairs are carried out. We will work out the best form of accommodation for those who can’t call on relatives so that everyone can be looked after properly until they can get back to their homes.”
The city council has confirmed that one flat is badly damaged by fire and 10 flats have suffered severe water damage. There appears to be no serious structural damage, and only minimal smoke damage to rest of the property.
The fire is thought to have started in an eighth floor flat although the person living in the flat was not at home at the time.
Stuart Horth, incident commander from Norfolk Fire Rescue Service, said the fire was put out within 10 minutes just as it was starting to spread to floor above. He praised the work of the fire crews and also the swift actions of the people living in the building who evacuated the building before emergency services arrived and helped avert a more serious situation.
David Freeman, witness the fire. He said: “We heard shouting telling us to get out and when we did we saw smoke and within five minutes the window had blown out. We could see a few flames out the bottom of the window at first but within a few minutes they were huge and the whole flat was obviously engulfed. It was terrifying and we were all worried in case anyone was in there. It was panic, really.”
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