Crews tackle residential high rise fire following over 20 calls to control

Crews are tackling a blaze on Grafton Street, Portsmouth following 21 calls taken by Control this afternoon.

Control started to receive calls from 15:52. They mobilised over 50 firefighters from Southsea, Cosham, Portchester, Havant, Eastleigh, Fareham, Hayling Island, St Mary’s, Waterlooville, Beaulieu and Alton to the scene.

The fire was ablaze in the four-storey residential building and involved the roof and the top floor of a two-level flat.

Crews have confirmed that the flat was not occupied, and all flats have evacuated and persons were accounted for.

Incident Commander, Rob Cole, commented:

‘Crews from across the county came together and worked hard to keep the fire from spreading this evening.
We tackled some challenging conditions due to the full developed and severe fire at hand, but we were pleased that the building behaved as it should, as we expected it to.
We appreciate the hard work of our partners from other local services including the police and council and thank them for their support.’

Stop message received at 18:24

UPDATE: Police provided a scene guard overnight before a joint investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire got underway this morning.

Crews returned at various points throughout the night to reinspect the scene and check for remaining hotspots.