Busy Bonfire Night for firefighters

A large warehouse fire in the centre of Newcastle on Wednesday night 'could not have come at a worse time', fire officers said.

Tyne and Wear fire crews had a busy Bonfire Night with over 600 calls severely stretching resources.

Firefighters were called to the warehouse building in Rutherford Street in Chinatown at around 0530 GMT on Thursday.

The building is used as storage by a Chinese restaurant.

At its peak, the fire was tackled by seven fire engines, together with two specialist vehicles.

Nearby roads including Bath Lane and Stowell Street were closed off by police, and there were concerns about smoke drifting across nearby St James's Boulevard.

'Absolute hammering'

Firefighters are waiting for structural engineers to advise on the state of the building.

Divisional Officer Mick Neilson praised his crews for the way they tackled such a major incident at the end of a very busy bonfire night.

"It couldn't have come at a worse time really - the brigade has had an absolute hammering last night," he said.

"I believe we've been dealing with somewhere in the region of 600 or 700 calls since teatime yesterday evening.

"So you can imagine on the back of that a protracted incident like this is quite something for the firefighters to deal with."