Page 2. South East Times. Issue 67
Training
Holborn fire is still burning under the pavement
A road in central London remains closed as
an electrical fire continues to burn under the
pavement.
Some 5,000 people were evacuated from
nearby buildings after smoke was seen
coming out of an inspection cover on
Kingsway, in Holborn, on Wednesday.
London Fire Brigade (LFB) said the fire has
been contained but has been “technically
difficult” to tackle.
More than 20 firefighters and officers are still
at the scene and local road closures are in
place.
LFB Assistant Commissioner Peter Cowup
said: “This has been a technically difficult
incident to tackle.
“The reason that the fire is still burning is
because the service tunnel is hard to reach.
“Although firefighters have been applying
water through access points throughout the
night, the complexity of the tunnel layout
means that it will be some time until the fire
is fully extinguished.”
He added LFB, the Met Police and utility
companies were making steady progress to
try and resolve the situation.
‘Not an overnight job’
Insp Neil Johnson, from the Met Police,
said: “The fire is still live in the subway. The
problem at the moment is there is a gas pipe
underneath and we are all in agreement that
it is ok and if we can keep it contained it will
be fine.
“All we need to do is keep people out of the
area and let the fire brigade and utilities do
their job.”
“I imagine this road will be closed a long time
after this is finished because of damage the
heat does to the road,” Mr Johnson said.
“It will have to remain closed until a
structural engineer examines it properly and
Education
either he or she says what work has to be
done and that work is completed - this is not
an overnight job.”
On Thursday onlookers reported struggling to
breathe and “chaos” in and around Holborn.
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
UK Power Networks said the number of
customers currently affected by the power
cuts stood at about 1,000 and they had
restored power to 2,000.
Apologising to customers Matt Rudling,
from UK Power Networks, said: “The gas
is still burning under there and until we can
gain access to that particular area we won’t
understand what’s caused it and what we can
do.”
“We want to try and restore [power to] all
those remaining customers by the end of day
today.”
He apologised for the disruption and added
that emergency generators were being used to
supply power to the area.
UK Power Networks’ engineers are also
trying and connect some of the damaged
cables to unaffected ones.
Kingsway is closed between Holborn and
Aldwych, the Strand Underpass, Waterloo
Bridge northbound and Southampton Row
southbound between Vernon Place and High
Holborn, which is causing delays.
Holborn station is open, however nine bus
routes are being diverted.