Two separate fire incidents in Liverpool and Dorset resulted in hotel evacuations over the weekend, with one located in an electrical substation and the other involving a solar panel system.
On the morning of 23 March 2024, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS) dispatched crews to James Street underground railway station in Liverpool’s city centre after a fire alarm was triggered. Five fire appliances attended the scene.
On their arrival, MFRS confirmed the presence of an “electrical fire in a substation on level five underground”. Under “rapid deployment”, two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used CO2 extinguishers to tackle the fire and prevent it from escalating.
The incident led to significant rail disruption, with engineers called in to “isolate the electrical supply” in the affected transformer room. MFRS reported that a “further alarm activation and light smoke on the first floor led to an adjacent hotel being evacuated as a precaution”. According to the Liverpool Echo, the hotel evacuated was Heeton Concept Hotel. The fire service added, however, that the source of the smoke was the extraction system in the train station “rather than a separate source of fire”.
At around 6.45 am, engineers were able to isolate the transformer involved in the fire, and four firefighters used CO2 extinguishers to completely extinguish the fire.
A day later, on the afternoon of Sunday 24 March, Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) responded to a fire involving a solar panel system on the roof of a Travelodge in Poole. Eight fire appliances attended the scene, including multiple crews and support units from Poole, Wimborne, Redhill Park, Westbourne, Hamworthy, and Dorchester.
Guests staying at the hotel were evacuated, and locals were advised to avoid the area while crews attended the incident. A spokesperson for DWFRS told Bournemouth One that on their arrival, crews found a fire “within a junction panel of some solar panels on the roof of the building”.
The fire was extinguished using foam, and DWFRS added that “approximately 3m x 3m of bitumen roof material was also affected by fire damage”. As reported by BBC News, during a reinspection by the service later in the evening, the service confirmed that “no issues were found”.