Selfridge Blaze

This is an emergency services story, written for the local newspaper, the Wood & Vale. I stumbled across this story unexpectedly in central London.

Fire Brings Christmas Chaos to Central London

Fire swept through the basement of a flagship central London store at midday on Friday, bringing chaos to the capital.

Selfridge Food Hall and Selfridge Hotel, on Baker Street, were both evacuated as four fire crews fought the blaze for 30 minutes.

Police were dispatched to the scene, to assist with the crowds of Christmas shoppers on one of the capital's busiest shopping streets.

Staff were alerted to the blaze, which began in the basement of the Food Hall, by the building's smoke alarms.

The Hotel and the Food Hall were evacuated immediately.

Traffic on Baker Street was brought to a halt as fire crews arrived on the scene.

A Fire Brigade spokesperson said: "We received a call shortly after midday. Around 20 fire fighters from Shaftesbury Avenue and Paddington attended the incident. The fire was under control by 12:30 pm. Nobody was hurt."

Staff appeared unshaken. Hayden Stowe, 22, said: "It was around 12, and we just got told to leave. Everyone was pretty calm. It gives us something to talk about on our lunch break!"

Senior staff declined to comment on the incident, the cause of which is still under investigation.

The scene outside Selfridge shortly after fire fighters took control of the blaze.

Report:

This is a relatively straight forward emergency services story, which I was lucky enough to stumble across while riding through central London.

As is now my habit, I had camera and notepad on my person, and set to work.

The story was written with the Wood & Vale in mind, the incident occurring just within the boundaries of the paper's patch. (Anything north of Oxford Street.)

It has been submitted for this weeks edition, which is released on Friday 14th December, so at the time of writing, I am unsure in what form it will appear in print.

I chose the angle of Selfridge being a flagship store to increase the newsworthiness of the story.

The timing is also important, with the streets being packed with Christmas shoppers.

I made sure to include all of this in the opening four paragraphs, and to keep the opening par comfortably under 24 words.

The fire in itself was a relatively minor incident, with no one hurt and little cause for panic, which is why the alternative angles take on additional importance.

Obtaining quotes proved difficult as expected, with a fire not being the best advert for a major store at Christmas time. Senior staff refused to comment over the phone later in the day, other than to dismiss the incident.

Anticipating this I spoke in person to shop floor staff shortly after the store reopened, one of whom was happy to comment informally.

London Fire Brigade offered a brief statement over the phone later that same afternoon, which I was able to include.

It was an interesting story to cover, arising from out of the blue as it did, and underlined the importance of being ready to cover an incident as it unfolds at any time.

I captured the short video particularly with online presentation of the story in mind.