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Towcester wedding venue 'significantly damaged' in fire | Towcester wedding venue 'significantly damaged' in fire |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A fire has caused "significant damage" at a Victorian manor house and wedding venue. | A fire has caused "significant damage" at a Victorian manor house and wedding venue. |
The blaze at Plum Park Hotel near Towcester, Northamptonshire, started at about 20:00 GMT on Monday. | |
Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) said the most severe damage was to the ground floor of the building, which was unoccupied. | |
An eight-mile stretch of the nearby A5 was closed for more than seven hours as 30 firefighters tackled the fire. | An eight-mile stretch of the nearby A5 was closed for more than seven hours as 30 firefighters tackled the fire. |
It was reopened by the Highways Agency by 04:00 GMT. | |
The owners, who were not in the building at the time, told the BBC they were "absolutely devastated". | |
They said they would be assessing the damage before contacting people with wedding or event bookings to tell them if they could still go ahead. | |
Mark Herring, 59, saw fire engines arriving at the hotel in Paulerspury as he drove home from work at 20:30 GMT. | |
"It looked like something you'd see in a film. The flames were creeping up the outside of the building, and there was a black plume of smoke," he said. | "It looked like something you'd see in a film. The flames were creeping up the outside of the building, and there was a black plume of smoke," he said. |
"The fire service have done a great job to contain it because from what I saw last night I was expecting it to be an empty shell." | "The fire service have done a great job to contain it because from what I saw last night I was expecting it to be an empty shell." |
The first floor of the building also suffered some damage. | The first floor of the building also suffered some damage. |
Group commander Kev Hardwick, of NFRS, said the age of the building and the wooden parts of the structure made it a complex fire. | |
"[Older buildings] tend to have changed around over the years, so fire can travel through old voids, up behind wood cladding," he said. | |
"It's really difficult to check the fire's spread." | |
There were not thought to be any suspicious circumstances, the fire service said, but investigators will examine the scene. |
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