Health club gutted by fire aims to reopen in weeks

The boss of a health club and spa that suffered a devastating fire last month said it could reopen in a matter of weeks.

Riverhills Health Club on Bramford Road, Ipswich, had its roof over the swimming pool collapse in the blaze on 23 June.

About 70 firefighters worked "in very challenging circumstances" to prevent the fire spreading to the main building, the fire service said at the time.

Dave Courteen, managing director of Mosaic Spa and Health Club, which owns Riverhills, said it was "a devastated building and our focus will be on getting this back up and open as soon as possible".

Dave Courteen said was hopeful parts of the centre will reopen in "weeks"

Mr Courteen said part of the building was "completely unscathed and as soon as we've got electricity here then we will be able to reopen".

But he said the swimming pool area needed rebuilding and was not likely to be operational until at least the early part of next year.

He said the club would be working with specialists to decide whether the pool hall would need to be demolished or could be rebuilt.

No-one was hurt in the blaze.