Fire in Birmingham Broad Street building was caused by a ‘carelessly disposed cigarette’

A fire which broke out on Broad Street was caused by a ‘carelessly disposed cigarette’, according to the West Midlands Fire Service.

Crews were called at 2.40pm on Sunday (14 August) to reports of a fire on Broad Street. The incident involved a fire in a void between two buildings, Lee Longlands and The Mercian. A full evacuation of both buildings took place.

The Mercian building, which is a 42-storey property consisting of 1st-floor offices, 2nd-floor open space, 3rd-floor gym and 4th-42nd floors of domestic apartments was most affected by the fire. The fire service said that the main hot spots of fire were in wall cavities and affected insulation. After exposing wall cavities, crews extinguished the fires.

The cause was determined to have been careless disposal of a cigarette into a void area, which then ignited a rubbish fire that spread to the Mercian building. A woman self-presented to West Midlands Ambulance paramedics at the scene with smoke inhalation but was discharged at the scene. There were no other reported casualties.

West Midlands Police, West Midlands Ambulance, representatives from the electricity and gas boards, and from Lee Longlands, The Mercian and Midland Metro were all in attendance supporting the incident.

Broad Street was closed while the fire was dealt with until around 9pm. The closure also affected the Midland Metro tram line. Tram services were also restored at around 9pm, when the incident was scaled down to two fire crews. Due to the need to continue to check for hot spots during the night and for their own safety, approximately 197 residents were permitted to retrieve belongings and, in agreement with The Mercian management, were temporarily re-homed overnight, with some being hosted by the nearby Novotel Hotel.

Further checks across all floors were carried out by firefighters using thermal image cameras and crews left the scene around 23:40, arranging to return to re-check the property at 02:30 on 15/08.

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