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Fire breaks out at Johnston Press headquarters

More than 30 firefighters were called to tackle a fire on the roof of the Johnston Press offices in Central London last night.

Fire broke out at the publisher’s Cavendish Square headquarters shortly after 5pm yesterday evening.

Six fire engines and 35 firefighters were called to tackle the blaze and the building along with two others either side was evacuated.

Chief executive Ashley Highfield tweeted: “We have a fire on the roof of the JP Head Office in Cavendish Square, W1. Firemen already on roof.”  He also posted a picture of the scene on the social networking site.

Firefighters on the roof at JP's London HQ. Picture by chief executive Ashley Highfield.

The fire affected some electrical plant machinery on the roof of the seven storey office block, but there weer no injuries.

Station Manager John Snelgrove who was at the scene said: “Crews quickly accessed the roof using an aerial appliance and an internal staircase and worked hard to ensure the fire was contained to the roof area.”

The London Fire Brigade said the fire brigade was under control by 18.54 and appears to have been extinguished shortly after 9pm.

At 9.35pm Ashley tweeted:  “Fire put out! Good work LFB. Nice to help our regional press friends at the Standard with a photo.”

Firefighters from Soho, Euston, Kensington and Paddington fire stations attended the incident.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

9 comments

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  • July 10, 2014 at 11:05 am
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    Hey Ashley! Try working remotely from the local library or supermarket.

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  • July 10, 2014 at 4:47 pm
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    At least there was a photographer handy….oh, no, I forgot. They’ve all been made redundant.

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  • July 10, 2014 at 8:16 pm
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    That’s the wrath of gods for your 6.52 share offer that turned into 2 shares

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  • July 10, 2014 at 8:27 pm
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    Good to see that AH is sticking to his company’s mantra of using crappy phone images. User generated content at its best!

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  • July 10, 2014 at 9:05 pm
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    So at least some JP centres have an office and a photographer.

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  • July 14, 2014 at 7:00 pm
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    No…. It’s a crappy phone image. Hopefully there will be a fire sale soon. The way circulation of JP weeklies is going and the failure of digital plus share prices struggling below 4p it’s gonna happen sooner rather than later. JP can issue rights and refinance all they want but their mis-management and plain crazy ideas will kill them off.

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