This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

More than 50 firefighters have saved Liverpool’s art deco Littlewoods building from a fire that had threatened to destroy the structure.

The fire was declared to be under control at about 1.30am on Monday, almost six hours after flames were seen coming from the roof of the landmark building, which was part of the football pools arm of Littlewoods.

An inspection after the blaze by a structural engineer found there were no concerns about the structural integrity of the building, according to Merseyside fire and rescue service (MFRS). But the roof and at least one upper floor of the west wing are feared to have been destroyed. At the height of the blaze, an area measuring 200 metres by 100 metres was on fire from the first floor upwards.

The east wing, which is due to be turned into a film and TV production site in a £50m project dubbed the “Hollywood of the north”, escaped largely unscathed. There has been no reports of injuries either.

The mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said the fire was “a real setback”. He tweeted:

Joe Anderson (@mayor_anderson) Absolutely heartbreaking news that the iconic Littlewoods Building is ablaze, looks pretty bad at this stage, let’s hope and pray its salvageable. https://t.co/xOuRHcy60W



Adam Higgins, the co-founder of the building’s developer, Capital & Centric, said the blaze had started in the west wing. “So far all the walls remain intact and obviously they are the bits that are really iconic to people from the city,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“The building is hugely important to us and to everyone really in Liverpool. We announced some big plans about three months ago which would bring in the Twickenham film studios to the city and to this building in particular.

“I’m very hopeful that we still will be able to do that because the walls still seem to be intact and, providing we can keep them up, we can still very much continue with our plans.”

The MFRS area manager, Paul Murphy, said the size of the building made it extremely difficult for crews to deal with the blaze.

“However, crews have worked extremely hard to battle this fire and have prevented it from spreading … It has been a challenging incident but we are in a position with the council where we feel the structural integrity of the building may remain intact,” he added.

The building, which sits on Edge Lane, was constructed in 1938 by the businessman Sir John Moores.

MFRS said it was called to the building at 7.52pm on Sunday and crews were on the scene within four minutes, but the roof of one of the buildings was already well alight.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Firefighters at the scene of the blaze. Photograph: Richard Martin-Roberts/Getty Images

Crews equipped with breathing apparatus entered the building and two main jets were used to quell the fire from the outside.

The fire broke out just over a week after Liverpool’s city centre fire station announced it will be shut at night from September owing to government cuts.

The fire service advised residents living nearby to keep their windows and doors closed due to the amount of smoking coming from the building.

Littlewoods is the latest in a series of notable civic buildings to catch fire in recent months. On Friday, the huge blaze that destroyed a Primark store in Belfast was extinguished after three days.

The fire started at about 11am on Tuesday and led to the roof and floors collapsing. The historic Bank buildings were scorched in the process, leaving a blackened sandstone facade.

In June, Glasgow’s world renowned School of Art, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, was devastated by a huge fire just four years after a different part of the building was set alight. The Mackintosh building is to be rebuilt after it was destroyed during the blaze.

It was being renovated in a project estimated to cost up to £35m.

Press Association contributed to this report