Words & pics by Liam Smith
Smoke billowed across North Birmingham yesterday as over 40 firefighters tackled a blaze at the old Bagot Arms pub at the Tyburn Road roundabout.
West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) were alerted to the fire by “multiple calls from the public” at around 5pm on Thursday August 5, dispatching seven fire engines to the scene.
Pumping water from the canal, emergency services shut down several roads around the area – including the busy thoroughfares Eachelhurst Road and Tyburn Road.
Firefighters worked tirelessly to control the blaze until late in the evening, finally starting to reduce the number of fire engines at the scene at around 10pm.
WMFS Station Manager Mark Hudson, who was Incident Commander at the site, told Erdington Local: “Our engines arrived on the scene very quickly to a fully developed fire in the roof space and on the ground and first floor.”
“The pub is void/derelict and due to the multiple sources of fire within the pub it is likely that is has been started deliberately. We have attended a number of incidents here previously, so we are comfortable in saying that the fire has been started deliberately.
“There isn’t anybody injured as far as we are aware. We still need to conduct a full search of the building; we have been unable to up to now due to the fire spread and also the damage to the building.
“At the moment we are focusing on defensive firefighting (putting the fire out) until we get the go ahead from the structural engineer.”
“There are currently seven fire engines, including two specialist resources which consist of a hydraulic platform, which can apply a lot of water at height and a high-volume pump, which is taking water directly from the canal and being pumped into the fire.
“Eventually we will be scaling back our resources but for now we remain in place”
In a previous statement, West Midlands Fire Service Group Manager Rob Davis told Erdington Local:
“First call received at 17:02 with a large amount of multiple calls from the public. We had seven fire engines with supporting vehicles and 45 firefighters attend this incident. We also deployed our high-volume pump to supply water from the nearby canal.
“This was a derelict public house due for demolition and there were no persons involved. Following an investigation by our officers this fire is believed to be started deliberately.”
Seven fire engines and 45 firefighters tackle blaze at Bagot Arms
For more from West Midlands Fire Service visit www.wmfs.net