Fire in St Albans city centre
TWO construction workers have been taken to Watford hospital as a precaution following a fire this morning (August 7) in the centre of St Albans.
St Albans Fire station received a call at 9.21am to attend the fire on scaffolding surrounding a building on Holywell Hill, which is believed to have originated from a gas canister.
Police immediately closed Holywell Hill and Albert Street as a safeguard. However the roads were reopened to traffic at 10.10am.
Eyewitness Jinko Marchev said: “I heard an explosion, then five minutes later another explosion.”
A spokesperson for the fire service said that two workers were on the roof of the building when the fire began. One of them managed to get away, but the other worker had to be rescued by firefighters who climbed a 13.5m ladder, and took him to safety through a window.
The pair were then taken by ambulance to Watford hospital.
Two St Albans fire engines attended the fire, along with appliances from Watford, Hatfield, and Garston.
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Firefighters used a thermal image camera to check that there were not any other people in the building, and had extinguished the small fire by 9.51am.
The fire is being treated as accidental.
