Fire breaks out at old courthouse

One lane on part of Civic Drive was closed off to allow fire engines to park

Emergency crews have been tackling a fire at an old courthouse building in Ipswich, where homeless people have been living in tents on the entrance steps.

Up to 35 firefighters were sent to the former crown court on Civic Drive in the town centre.

Smoke could be seen coming out of the front of the building and a strong burning smell was reported at the scene on Friday morning.

Suffolk Fire Service's group manager Conrad Burgess said a small blaze on the ground floor had been put out and crews were searching the smoke-filled basement to make sure there were no more fires, but no-one had been found inside so far.

The steps of the old courthouse have been occupied by people living in tents for several months

Five fire engines were parked at the scene, along with four ambulance service vehicles

The building has been unused for years, and in recent months a number of people have been sleeping under the canopy at the building's entrance.

Mr Burgess said: "We did treat it as if there may have been someone in there, but that was precautionary, because those that are local to the area know that people do tend to use it for sleeping rough outside of the building.

"There was one gentleman there that when we arrived did give us some details and was sleeping rough, so at this stage we are relatively confident that we're not going to find anyone in the building.

"We just wanted to make sure that nobody had gone inside to stay out of the cold."

He said the service was still searching through the basement.

Ipswich Borough Council, which owns the building, has supplied the fire service with a "very detailed plans of the building, so we've actually got a route map we can use to work out our search strategy", Mr Burgess added.

Hoses could be seen being run into the building through the front entrance, although there is no damage visible from the outside.

The council said engineers had been brought in to isolate the gas and electricity supplies to the building.

The Spiral car park was closed off while emergency services used the area as a base for operations

Mr Burgess said he expected the fire service to remain on the scene until about 13:00 GMT, because once the building was clear, fire investigators would go in to try to work out what caused of the blaze.

"I would like to say to thank everyone who is local, they have been very patient with us because we have closed off a little bit of Civic Drive off, but the drivers are being very patient," he said.

The old courthouse is at at the top of Handford Road, and one lane of Civic Drive was closed off for fire engines