Fire investigators wait to establish cause of restaurant blaze

FIRE investigation officers are still waiting to gain access to the scene of a blaze which devastated a Black Country restaurant.

West Midlands Fire Service has said it could be up to a week before the cause of the fire which gutted the Hickory’s Smokehouse restaurant can be determined.

In the meantime, the jobs of 65 people employed at the restaurant remain in doubt.

At its height, more than 100 firefighters from across the Black Country were drafted in to deal with the blaze and crews are still on scene this morning in case pockets of fire remain in the restaurant building.

The concerns remain because the Grade II listed building had a thatched roof and large clumps of the thatch have fallen through into the restaurant below under the weight of water pumped on the building.

Hickory’s said in a statement on its website: “We are absolutely devastated about the news of the fire here at our Wall Heath site both for our team and the local community.

“Fire fighters have done an incredible job fighting the blaze and we are just waiting to speak to the Police and Fire Investigation experts to establish the cause.”

The company was preparing for a busy Bank Holiday weekend and had hundreds of bookings already in place. It has now removed the booking details for the restaurant from the website.

As part of the firefighting efforts, 20 guests from the adjoining Heath Brook Lodge had to be evacuated.

However, that building and an adjoining leisure facility have been saved.