Police and Fire Officers are investigating the cause of a major blaze at a former John Lewis warehouse in the city.

Over 50 firefighters from seven stations tackled the fire on Mill Road in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It took the carefully co-ordinated efforts of the Fire Service over twelve hours to bring the flames under control.

The warehouse is being treated as a crime scene by police, until a full assessment inside the building can be made. Detective Inspector Alan Page said: “Because the building is unsafe, we cannot allow investigators to enter. If anyone saw anything suspicious or unusual shortly before the fire started in Mill Road, please contact me.”

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Services said nobody had been hurt in the incident. However, residents and staff at nearby Brookfields Hospital were advised to keep doors and windows closed as the fire spread through the derelict building.

“I woke up at 2am to flashing lights,” said Andrea Walko, the CUSU Welfare & Graduates Officer, who lives in the house next to the fire, “and I saw there was a fire in the warehouse next door. I was really scared, but the firemen reassured us that they would tell us in good time if we had to leave”. Walko eventually had to leave her house, spending the night on a sofa in King’s.

Another Mill Road resident, Edward Rice, was less put out by the event: “As long as no one was hurt and it was not my house that burnt down, I don’t really mind,” he said.

Fire and Rescue have said that the building has suffered extensive structural damage. Spokesperson Ronnie Booth told Cambridge Radio Q103: “The big issue now is with potential building collapse. Some of the building has already collapsed so we need to keep a very, very close eye.”

The warehouse is owned by the Muslim Academic Trust, in partnership with the Cambridge Muslim Welfare Society, who had intended to demolish to make way for a new mosque.

Speaking to the Cambridge Evening News, one witness feared the inferno has decided the future fate of the building for the Trust: “It will have to come down now. The fire has gone all the way through. If you go to the back there is a hole in the wall and I can see a steel girder is bent.”

The blaze caused considerable disruption to one of Cambridge’s busiest routes. Mill Road was closed between Perne Road and Coleridge Road for over 24 hours due to the incident.

Craig Hogg