Avon Fire and Rescue Service has issued an update following the blaze which broke out on the roof of We The Curious in Bristol city centre this afternoon (Saturday, April 9). Smoke could be seen billowing from the museum at around 2.30pm as as an alarm rang loudly across Millennium Square.
Station manager Jason Edwards spoke to Bristol Live at the scene of the fire at just before 3.45pm, and said they were hoping to reopen Anchor Road within the next hour after it was sectioned off with police tape. He said: "Earlier on this afternoon we were called to a fire in the building behind, and when we arrived we found the flames coming from the solar panels on the roof.
"That has then affected a portion of the roof, until we were able to establish a water supply and crews in to extinguish the fire." Mr Edwards said it took the fire service around an hour to extinguish the flames, and he added that everybody in the building had been evacuated by police when the fire engines arrived.
Read more: We The Curious issue statement after major fire breaks out
"When we arrived the police were in there and they had already been evacuating the building. We quickly established that everybody was clear and nobody was then in any danger inside the building," he said. And he added: "(Our) next step is to just assess the damage, make sure the fire is out and then we can pass it back to the owners of the building and the police can open the road and get everybody back to normal as best as possible."
At 2.30pm, We The Curious issued a statement which said: "Our venue has been evacuated following a fire alarm, caused by a fire on our roof. Avon Fire and Rescue Service and the police are currently on site, all staff and visitors are accounted for. More updates to follow as we have them."
