London firefighters evacuated 1,500 people from the Old Bailey, England’s Central Criminal Court, and surrounding buildings Wednesday after a fire in the historic court complex. Photo courtesy London Fire Brigade/X
Feb. 7 (UPI) — British firefighters evacuated 1,500 people from London’s Old Bailey and surrounding buildings Wednesday after a fire in the historic court complex.
Four engines and around 25 firefighters were responding to an incident involving an electrical substation on Warwick Lane, at the rear of the Central Criminal Court for England, the London Fire Brigade said in an incident alert.
The fire service said the fire was under control and that an electrical substation was partially damaged.
There were not immediately any reports of injuries.
Firefighters from Dowgate, Soho and Dockhead stations remain on the scene but the cause of the blaze is as yet unknown.
“Firefighters are working with U.K. Power Networks to make the scene safe and bring the fire under control,” the fire service said.
U.K. Power Networks confirmed its engineers have been called to Paternoster Square in central London just after 11 a.m. local time due to a fire that had knocked out power in the area.
“We will work to restore supplies as quickly as is safely possible,” the company said.
Judges, jurors and court staff were seen outside the complex as workers at a nearby building told the BBC they heard rumbling and then saw black smoke emerge. Judge Mark Lucraft KC also told the network that the blaze stemmed from an electrical substation in the area.
BBC journalists in the complex covering court cases reported hearing a loud bang before the building went dark and black smoke began billowing from the lower floors of the building.
“The lights started flickering, they flickered again and all of a sudden we heard, ‘get out,” a person who was in the court gallery told the BBC.
The incident interrupted a number of high-profile trials including that of Mark Gordon and Constance Marten who are being tried for the manslaughter of their newborn daughter in March after going on the run from police and child protective services.
The Criminal Bar Association said defendants being held in custody cells at the building were “returned to prison remand.” It added that barristers and other non-court workers have been ordered to stay away from the building, pending safety checks, and told not to return to court until Thursday.