Eight fire appliances attend fire at Wetherspoon pub The Hippodrome in Market Drayton
Eight fire appliances attended a fire at the Wetherspoon public house, The Hippodrome, on Queen Street in Market Drayton on Saturday lunchtime.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service received a report of a property fire at 1.12 pm. On arrival, crews were met by the manager, who informed them that there was smoke logging within the property and that a full evacuation of staff and customers had already been carried out.
The Incident Commander quickly assessed the situation and identified a heavily smoke-logged building with a fully developed and rapidly spreading fire within the raised seating area of the property. The fire was observed spreading vertically behind wooden panelling towards the first floor and roof space, and horizontally beneath the wooden flooring.
A large mobilisation of resources was triggered, drawing crews from across the north of the county. A total of eight fire appliances were dispatched to the scene, with firefighters arriving from Market Drayton, Hodnet, Prees, Wem, Whitchurch, and Shrewsbury. The rapid emergency response included several specialist units designed for large-scale incidents.
An Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) was deployed to allow crews to tackle the blaze from a height, while an Incident Command Unit was established on-site to coordinate the efforts of the numerous teams. Senior Operations, Safety, and Principal officers were also in attendance to oversee what proved to be a complex firefighting operation.
Firefighters utilised twenty sets of breathing apparatus and employed three hose reel jets, one larger covering jet, and an aerial ladder platform. To assist from the air, a drone was used to provide thermal imaging and situational awareness to the commanders on the ground.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that all persons have been accounted for and no injuries have been reported. The official "stop message" was received at 3.31 pm, just over two hours after the first emergency call was placed.
Crews remained on scene for a further two hours, cutting away burnt timber and damping down.
Following a fire investigation, the cause of the fire was determined to be accidental, caused by hot embers from an open fire dropping through a defect in the fire place, resulting in the wooden floor and supporting timbers catching fire and spreading.
Damage was caused to the floor, walls, and ceiling within the raised seating area as a result of fire, heat, and smoke.
West Mercia Police were at the scene throughout the afternoon to manage road cordons with the closure of Queen Street and Cheshire Street while the incident was dealt with.
