Neighbours could smell 'horrid' smoke in the air and were stunned to see 'blue flashing lights' as a college site went up in flames. William Prophet also described seeing a helicopter overhead as the emergency services tackled the fire at the old Clarendon College campus in Pelham Avenue, Gregory Boulevard.
The 55-year-old, who spotted the helicopter at about 2am on Thursday (May 5), said: “I ironically was going for a smoke and saw it then. I could smell the smoke at night; it was a horrid smell so I went out on my pushbike to get some cigarettes and saw the blue flashing lights on the road."
But on further inspection, Sherwood resident Mr Prophet, who is self-employed, said the site didn't "seem too badly damaged". "I don’t know what happened at all, possibly could have been someone in there," he said. "Good job it didn’t spread more as I think the wind must have been blowing our way.”
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Six fire engines were called out from the Stockhill, London Road, Arnold, Highfields and Mansfield fire stations at 1.54am. It is currently not known if anyone was injured but the fire is said to have damaged the inside of what remains of the empty campus.
In an update, a spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said a full investigation had been completed. She said: "The cause has been deemed as deliberate ignition, and it's looking suspicious. The police investigation is still ongoing, we have handed it over to them now."
Work started last year under plans to transform the site into a new 1,200 secondary school called Bluecoat Trent, with demolition underway at the site before the fire broke out. People living nearby said they hoped the fire would not delay the plans for the new school and they spoke of their relief that the fire did not spread further.
Painter John Murphy, 61, who lives in Radford Road, said he was concerned it could slow the demolition. "I knew it was being demolished, but you don't know what the fire has done - it could slow the progress down.
"I used to do some work in there, a bit of painting. I hope it's all safe now and that no one was messing around in there with it, like people do with empty buildings."
Nottingham College, which now has a new city hub in Canal Street, previously transferred ownership of the building to LocalED, the arms-length property company belonging to the Department for Education. More than £5million in council grants will be used to transform the college building into a new secondary school amid rising pupil numbers in Nottingham.
Nottingham City Council recently gave notice that prior planning approval wasn't necessary so demolition work at the old college site could start. The DfE will manage the redevelopment and new school build so that it is ready for 2023.
Alastair Purkis, 30, a video producer from Sherwood, was utterly bemused. “Really? I live just a bit behind it and I didn’t know anything about it. I guess it is an odd thing to hear about where you live. There was a fire at my old school in Bramcote, too. Thankfully it didn’t spread, doesn’t look like a lot of damage. I would have expected to hear more.”
Raghu Barker, 33, a teacher from Carrington, added: “I’m glad that it did not go any further. I don’t know much about what happened. I didn’t even know until now about the fire. I couldn’t smell any smoke near me so it’s a surprise.”
It comes just weeks after a fire ripped through another former Nottingham College site in Clifton. The fire left a trail of shattered glass and blown out windows. On Thursday morning, a spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "I can confirm we attended Clarendon College and that we are due to go out with the police for a further investigation today."
