Significant fire at derelict seaside hotel

Fire crews have spent the early hours of the morning dealing with a "significant" fire in a derelict hotel in a seaside town.

Norfolk Fire Service was called at 00:28 BST to Nelson Road South, Great Yarmouth.

The neighbouring property, to the former Victory Hotel, was evacuated.

No-one was hurt and the fire, attended by a crews from across the county, has been extinguished.

Fabio Goncalves, lives close by.

"My home was filled with smoke and that is what made me get up at 01:00 to see what was going on," he said.

He added he was OK and the blaze looked "massive", in the middle of the night.

At the scene

Andrew Turner, BBC Radio Norfolk

"It's a devastating site at this once beautiful building, The Victory Hotel, in Great Yarmouth, which has sea views looking down Albert Road towards the Winter Gardens.

"Once upon a time four Victorian villas were converted into the hotel but this fire has taken the roof off all four of the properties which were once joined, along with the one that's neighbouring.

"People were evacuated to a place of safety overnight."

Incident commander Simon Mason said the building was still "structurally sound"

Simon Mason, the incident commander, said: "We're just dealing with the hot spots and making sure the fire's not going to reignite."

The neighbouring residents had been "evacuated for safety, as the fire did spread into their roof area and there is some water damage in there.

"The building is gutted by the fire, there's been significant fire damage through all floors including the basement and roof space, it's going to be an almost total loss from fire."

The cause of the fire is to be investigated.

Norfolk Police said a cannabis farm had been found at the former hotel in March and investigations into that discovery were ongoing.