Octopus Restaurant fire: Police confirm blaze was not arson

Firefighters had to fight a blaze at the Octopus Restaurant from the outside after it spread

Guernsey Police has closed its investigation into a fire at the Octopus Restaurant after finding no evidence of foul play.

Firefighters were called at 04:00 GMT on Saturday 24 February to reports of a large fire at the St Peter Port venue.

Police confirmed the fire, which was burning for at least an hour before crews arrived, was not arson.

Guernsey's fire chief said he was "immensely proud" of his team during a very busy weekend for the service.

Fire crews dealt with 21 call-outs between 24-25 February, three of which were fires.

On average, the service responds to 11 call-outs, including one fire, on a typical weekend.

'Increase in calls'

Chief Fire Officer Jon Le Page called the weekend a "blip" and said he was not concerned about an increase in calls.

The biggest incident was the fire at the popular seafront eatery.

The Octopus Restaurant's smoke alarms were effective, but, due to its isolated location and the direction of the wind, no-one heard the alarm sound until the fire had burned for an hour, Mr Le Page said.

He said the root cause may never fully be known due to the nature of the blaze.

'Long and protracted'

He said: "The ceiling materials were coming down, the smoke layer was very, very low, and it was very, very hot ... It became a long and protracted process."

Duty officer for the incident Daniel Joyce said because the fire was fully developed, firefighters had to withdraw from the building for their own safety soon after entering, meaning they had to fight the blaze from the outside.

In the same weekend, the fire service attended two more unrelated fires at the Vale and in St Martin's, which they put out without substantial damage to property.

Mr Le Page thanked his team for their efforts after several crew members worked extra hours and off-duty staff were called in to help.