Fire crews attend '˜suspicious' blaze at former Portsmouth school

CREWS were called to a '˜suspicious' fire at a derelict school building in Portsmouth this morning.

By The Newsroom

Published 8th May 2018, 08:35 BST

Updated 7th Jun 2018, 17:39 BST

Firefighters from Cosham went to the old King Richard School building, off Allaway Avenue, which is currently being demolished.

A spokesman from the station said the fire was electrical and caused a lot of smoke.

‘The fire involved electrical cables that had been stripped from the building,’ he said.

‘We could see quite a lot of smoke from a distance although the fire itself wasn’t massive.

‘The company used a heavy set of shears attached to an excavator to weight down the copper wire so it’s caused a lot of damage to the equipment.

‘We suspect it could be up to £100,000 worth of damage.

‘The incident itself was suspicious.’

Cosham sent two appliances and used a compressed air foam system to extinguish the fire.

They were called at 5.55am.