Fire smokes Liverpool students out of flats

Liverpool students were plunged into pandemonium when a fire broke out at a hostel shortly before midnight on Wednesday night.

It is believed that seven people became trapped by the blaze and had to be rescued by fire crews from the hostel where the fire began.

Merseyside Fire and Rescue officials have informed JMU Journalism that the fire is alleged to have started when clothing in an industrial tumble drier caught fire in the laundry room of The International Inn, in South Hunter Street in Liverpool city centre.

The contents of the tumble drier in question were scorched and the laundry room itself has been severely damaged, with moderate damage to the ground floor.

The adjacent building Haigh Court, student accommodation also owned by Hope Street Properties Ltd, filled with smoke, preventing many Liverpool students from escaping by the main stairwell.

Hannah Garside, 21 said: “The main staircase was just filled with smoke. I couldn’t see down the staircase and we knew we couldn’t get out that way.”

The emergency services arrived just before midnight making sure that the building was evacuated. Three fire appliances arrived at the scene from Liverpool City and Lower Hill Fire Stations, as well as Merseyside Police and paramedics.

Brian Moore, Senior Technician from North West Ambulance Service, said: "The fire brigade are just checking around the building to make sure that it’s safe. The laundry that had been put in a drier has been taken out and put into a bag so that it generates so much heat that it combusts.”

The circumstances are not being treated as suspicious and fortunately neither the backpackers staying at the hostel nor the students were injured.