Fire tackled at lap dancing club

The Club Redd lap dancing club opened at the end of June

More than 100 firefighters remain at the scene of a huge blaze at a nightclub in West Sussex.

Emergency teams were called to the recently-opened Redd lap dancing club in Burgess Hill, just before 0200 BST.

Crews from East and West Sussex and Surrey attended the fire. The roof partially collapsed during the blaze.

The club, above the Pulse bar in the Martlets Shopping Centre, was shut when the fire started. Owner Leo Valls has claimed the fire was arson.

He said: "There's no doubt in my mind that this was a deliberate attack."

Adding there were objections when the lap dancing club opened in June, he said: "Some of the negative opinions that we have received have been to say the least vitriolic."

Gary Towson, of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said the fire spread very quickly.

'Big bonfire'

"There has been some water damage to a bar and a shop underneath and we are still working to try to make sure it doesn't spread to premises nearby."

He added that the fire was mostly out, but the roof of the club had collapsed causing "a big bonfire" on the first floor level.

Nobody was in the nightclub at the time and no injuries were reported.

A fire investigation team was inspecting the scene, along with police officers and a sniffer dog, but emergency teams said it would take until at least Wednesday before the cause of the fire would be established.

West Sussex Fire and Rescue warned there would be some disruption and restricted access to car parks and some shops.

Police said half of the car park was closed, along with Civic Road, but traffic was flowing freely around the rest of the area.

Advertisement

The spokesman for the club believes the attack was deliberate