Ipswich health club will reopen after 'disastrous fire'

A number of fire crews attended the blaze at Riverhills Health Club, Bramford Road, Ipswich in the early hours of Friday morning

A "disastrous" fire that partly destroyed the swimming pool area of a large gym and spa will reopen soon, its manager has said.

The blaze broke out at Riverhills Health Club, Bramford Road, Ipswich, at 00:45 BST on Friday.

Dave Courteen, its managing director, said because of "the brilliant work of fire crews, the majority of the club has been saved."

To keep staff "busy" they will deliver free treatments in the community.

Dave said his staff were "pulling together as a team", despite the "tough time"

Mr Courteen said: "The fire broke out outside of the main building after the club was closed, because it was outside the building it didn't sound the fire alarms and that spread to the main buildings.

"A large part of the pool hall has been extremely badly damaged but thanks to the brilliant work for the fire crews, the vast majority of the club has been saved and is relatively unscathed.

"Whilst it's pretty disastrous it could be an awful lot worse."

No-one was hurt in the fire

He said insurers and loss adjusters had been on site and it was "going to be quite a large claim".

More than £500,000 had recently been spent upgrading and refurbishing the club.

He said it would be "weeks" before part of the club could reopen, but "months before the pool hall opens, it has to be rebuilt".

The health club is on the edge of the village of Bramford, just west of where Bramford Road passes under the A14

At the time of the fire there was a lot of food on site, so to stop it going to waste it was donated to local care homes, food banks and "wherever else it could go".

As his staff are currently unable to work, he is making arrangements for "our beauty therapists to go out and deliver some treatments in local care homes and to vulnerable people, free of charge...

"We just thought it would be nice to do something for the community whilst we are in the difficult position, to give people a bit of a treat".

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