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Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service was called to a large and devastating fire in Sudbury town centre yesterday, Sunday 6th September.

The combined control room for Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Services received a call shortly after 18.15 Sunday evening and immediately sent fire engines to the scene on the Market Hill.

As the fire escalated more engines were sent from across Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex to tackle the blaze.

The first crews on the scene immediately set about fighting the fire and rescuing people trapped in the building. A woman was rescued from the second floor of the building by firefighters using ladders, whilst other crew members fought to prevent the flames from spreading.

Crews then continued to fight the flames and tried to prevent the fire from spreading to adjoining buildings. The fire continued to escalate, in total 15 fire engines together with emergency service colleagues from Police and Ambulance and other organisations were called to the scene and were engaged in fighting the fire. There were 95 fire fighters in total from Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex Fire and Rescue Services.

By 21.45 the fire began to be contained and some crews were able to begin some salvage of the ground floor shops.

At 00.30 crews were able to bring the fire under greater control and focus their efforts on particular hotspots in the main buildings affected.

Crews continued to bring the fire under control throughout the rest of the night, although the extent of the damage meant that part of the building collapsed at 02.35 whilst crews worked on dampening down the hot spots.

By 05.35 Monday morning an official stop was called as the fire had been largely extinguished. Crews then continued to dampen down and began removing unstable masonry and were relieved by additional crews. Firefighters will remain on site for a number of days supporting the recovery operation alongside colleagues from Babergh District Council, Sudbury Town Council, Suffolk County Council Emergency Planning and other agencies.

Mark Hardingham, Chief Fire Officer for Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, said:

“It was an incredibly challenging incident for all crews involved. Fires of this scale are not a common occurrence but nonetheless the response from the service was excellent. We train our firefighters to work in the most difficult of situations and the joint response with other blue light services yesterday evening is testament to the dedication and commitment shown by each and every firefighter and their colleagues from Police and Ambulance. The task now is to work with our colleagues in Suffolk Police to investigate the incident and if possible find a cause.”


Councillor Matthew Hicks, Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Protection said: “I want to offer my thanks for all those involved in tackling the fire yesterday. I think I speak for all of Suffolk’s residents when I say the hard work and dedication of our county’s fire and rescue service is second to none. This was a major fire and without the bravery and professionalism of the crews involved the situation had the potential to have been so much worse.”