Huge blaze hits city ski village complex

Around 25 firefighters tackled the blaze in the early hours of yesterday but were unable to save the buildings, which were well alight when they arrived.

Fire crews were called to the centre, just off Vale Road, at just before 1am and arrived to find the main wooden constructed building well alight.

At the height of the blaze five fire engines were at the scene – around 25 firefighters – dousing the fire using two main jets.

No-one was inside the building and there are not believed to be any injuries.

Incident commander Stuart Nicholson said it was suspected that gas cylinders were inside the building.

Fire crews had pumped around 3,000 litres of water per minute onto the flames.

Mr Nicholson added: “There is very little remaining of the building. It could be a further 24 hours before we can get closer to the site to carry out our investigation because of the risk of cylinders being involved in fire.”

A safety cordon was in place yesterday due to the suspected involvement of acetylene gas containers but due to the location of the site no residential properties have been affected.

Fire crews are expected to remain at the scene today. By 6am yesterday the incident had been scaled down to two fire engines.

The fire crews involved in the incident were from Central, Rivelin, Darnall, Elm Lane, Tankersley and Lowedges.

Nobody was available to comment from the Ski Village. The complex was damaged by a fire caused by suspected arsonists in March last year.