'Severe' fire breaks out at Wolverhampton home
An investigation into how a 'severe' fire broke out at a home in Wolverhampton will be carried out today.
Crews from Fallings Park and Wolverhampton stations were called to Court Road, Whitmore Reans, at around 6.30am after smoke started billowing from windows on the residential street.
The home is split into two flats, with the downstairs section gutted as the blaze inside reached temperatures of up to 600C.
Despite the fire stripping the plaster from the downstairs walls, the top of the building remained relatively undamaged.
Incident commander Dave Nail, from Wolverhampton fire station, said: "Fortunately there was nobody in the building at the time.
"We were called after the front window had been smashed by smoke, with the smoke then pouring out onto the street.
"The doors downstairs in the property were open and so the fire went wherever it wanted to down there.
"It was a particularly hot one which can be seen by the fact that the plaster has come off the walls.
"The bottom floor was badly damaged but the top is not in too bad a condition aesthetically, although there is concerns about potential structural damage to the building.
"Our fire investigation team will be attending the scene today, currently it is difficult to see how the fire would have started because of the damage to the downstairs area.
"I don't think it was started intentionally, however."
