Wolves fire: Blaze causes 'significant damage' to Molineux

Footage showed smoke coming from the ground

A fire broke out at Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux stadium in the early hours, damaging part of the ground, the football club has said.

Smoke could be seen coming from the stadium as 20 firefighters attended at about 01:55 GMT.

It started in the Sir Jack Hayward Suite bar area and spread to other nearby areas in the Billy Wright Stand, the club said.

The blaze is thought to have started in an electrical appliance.

Twitter user The Wolfpack said the stadium's alarms started sounding at about 01:40 and police later closed the road by the ground for a time while firefighters dealt with the fire.

Crews contained the blaze before putting it out by 03:40, West Midlands Fire Service said.

Andy Howard, from Wolverhampton fire station, said it was isolated to the bar area and smoke damage was caused to the rest of the floor.

Firefighters left the scene at 06:45 before returning some time later to assess the damage, the club said.

Steve Sutton, facilities, safety and security director at the football club, thanked the fire service and expressed that his relief no-one was hurt.

"It will take some days to fully assess the damage that has been caused, however it is quite significant and will take some time to repair," he said.

"Any supporter packages affected for the next game will be communicated by the relevant departments over the coming days.

"The most important thing of course, is that no one was present at the time, apart from our 24-hour security team, and no one was hurt.

"We apologise to residents in the area for the very loud alarms that went off late into the night, but hope they understand their necessity at such a critical time."

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