9:19am Saturday 17th October 2009
By James Nadal
FIRE crews were called to a blaze at the Bird in Hand pub in High Wycombe last night.
A call was made to High Wycombe fire station at around 11.35pm and three appliances went to the building in West Wycombe Road.
When crews arrived there was fire and smoke on the first floor.
Two firefighters wearing breathing equipment discovered fires in two of the six rooms on the floor.
Watch manager Andy Ward said: “Each bedroom was quite sparsley furnished, they’ve got built in cupboards.
"There was just a bed and a mattress in there and it was the mattresses in both rooms which were quite well alight and the rooms were quite severely smoke damaged.”
The rooms were vacant and the fires were extinguished in just a few minutes.
Although it was contained to the two rooms the fire could have spread quickly had the crew not arrived until later, watch manager Ward said.
“If it had been left it would have developed further, obviously carpets would catch, wooden furniture, doors and everything else.”
The pub was empty when the firefighters arrived.
They described the cause as “doubtful origin”. Police also attended.
The landlord was unavailable for comment this morning.
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