77 firefighters helped with Clifton house blaze

At the height of the blaze in a large house in Shefford Road, nearby residents were advised to keep their windows closed because of the dangers of smoke. No-one was injured.

The fire was discovered just after 12 noon on Monday and firefighters found the roof of the large house well alight.

The intense nature of the blaze meant that the number of fire appliances required was quickly increased to six fire engines on site. Because of the need to rotate fire crews regularly, in all 10 Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service appliances were used and one sent from Hertfordshire. Both aerial platforms from Bedford and Luton were used during the incident and the Incident Command Unit, Operations Support Unit and a water carrier were also used.

While they were fighting the fire from the outside the roof of the building collapsed having suffered 100% fire damage and this seriously affected the rest of the building causing structural damage. After gaining control of the fire Firefighters had to seek out small pockets of fire within the building and extinguished these before the fire was completed out just after 4pm. They then remained on site damping down and assisting with salvage operations until 8.30am on Tuesday.

At the height of the fire firefighters were using four breathing apparatus, two hose reels and three covering jet to fight the fire. The Red Cross were called in to give support to those affected by the fire.

The roof of the building was 100% destroyed by fire and the ground floor 50% damaged with the rest of the property suffering from smoke and water damage. There were no casualties and the incident is being treated as non-suspicious.

Due to concerns over smoke residents of properties in Maple Close, Birch Close, Chapel Close and Spring Road, Clifton were advised to keep their windows closed although there was no risk to these properties from the fire. Volunteers from the Bedfordshire and Luton Emergency Volunteers Executive Committee (BLEVEC) assisted in knocking on doors in the area to ensure local people were aware of what to do.