Investigation concludes Amazon fire was arson attack
A blaze which damaged Amazon’s large distribution hub in Staffordshire and destroyed a large quantity of products being stored inside, is believed to have been started deliberately, a fire investigation has concluded.
Crews from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to the large unit at Power Station Road, Rugeley at 12.15pm on November 4.
A fire had broken out on the third floor and then spread to the fourth floor of the four-storey building. The blaze involved a large amount of goods which were well alight when the crews arrived.
At the height of the blaze, four appliances from Barton-under-Needwood, Cannock, Lichfield and Chase Terrace attended the incident along with a relief crew from Gnosall.
Ten firefighters donned breathing apparatus so they could enter the building to tackle the fire, which had caused the depot to become heavily smoke-logged.
Sprinklers inside the building were activated and helped to prevent more stock from being damaged. The building was evacuated and no staff were injured.
The fire and rescue service said its subsequent investigation indicated that the fire had been started deliberately. A full forensic police investigation is now underway.
Fire Investigation Officer Carl Mason said: “This was quite a large scale incident which took several hours to deal with due to the type of materials inside the building and the level of smoke logging which took significant time to ventilate.
“The blaze has left the building seriously damaged but fortunately everyone inside was safely evacuated and no one was injured during the incident.
“Thankfully the building did have a sprinkler system fitted which has prevented the fire from spreading and becoming far more serious.”
The service is now collaborating with Staffordshire Police on their ongoing investigation into the incident.
In a strange coincidence, the blaze occurred almost 12 months to the day that another fire damaged the warehouse.
On that occasion fire crews were called out at 2am on a Sunday morning to deal with an incident which was also thought to be arson.
