Staff have been evacuated from an office building in the city centre after a fire broke out there this morning. Firefighters were called to the building before 10.45am today, setting up a cordon and urging nearby residents to close their windows against the smoke.
While the fire service has not confirmed the exact location of the fire, pictures from the scene appear to show the affected building is the Lloyds offices. Crews from Temple, Bedminster, Avonmouth, Southmead, Kingswood, Hicks Gate and Pill all responded to the city-centre blaze and were still on the scene an hour later.
A spokesperson said: “All persons have been safely evacuated from the building and there are no casualties.”
Keep up to date with our live blog of the situation.
They added: “We ask the public to avoid the area and local businesses to close their windows while our firefighters work.”
One Harbourside resident said thick smoke was blowing from the site of the fire up towards Millennium Promenade. “I can smell it as soon as I step out of my building,” she added. “It's quite thick. Some of my neighbours say they can smell it at home.”
Bedminster fire station tweeted that the blaze had begun in an underground electrical switch room. Firefighters tackled it with water, carbon dioxide and dry powder, after first turning off the power.
Videos from the scene show several fire engines in attendance, with large plumes of smoke initially rising into the air. There is now less smoke in the area.
Bristol Live has contacted Lloyds Banking Group for a comment on the situation, but none had been received at the time of publication.
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