Marconi House fire - Traffic chaos as Aldwych gridlocked after roof blaze
Published: 17 June 2011
by JOSH LOEB
ONE hundred fire-fighters and 20 fire engines battled to extinguish a rooftop blaze which shut down the Aldwych on Tuesday and sent a striking trail of smoke across Westminster’s skyline.
The fire, which took hold of the roof of the 10-storey Marconi House, was brought to the attention of London Fire Brigade at 11pm and crews had it under control by 6:30pm.
No injuries were recorded but the Aldwych was closed to traffic until early on Wednesday morning, causing gridlock on surrounding streets and diverting all traffic from Waterloo Bridge west towards Trafalgar Square.
A performance of Dirty Dancing was cancelled by staff at the Aldwych Theatre opposite Marconi House.
The building, which is currently undergoing a conversion to turn it into exclusive flats and a luxury hotel – named ME Hotel London and designed by Norman Foster’s architecture firm – was the site of the BBC’s first broadcast in 1922.
LFB station manager Tom Goodall said: “Our crews worked really hard in hot and taxing conditions to bring this fire under control as quickly as possible.
“It was a difficult job but firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the neighbouring properties.”
Members of the Salvation Army helped the CREWS, delivering them refreshments throughout the day.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation.