20 Jun 2013
The cause of a fire at a seaside Australian theme pub that has left 12 resident staff homeless is being investigated.
The blaze broke out in Blackpool’s Walkabout bar at around 5.30am on Wednesday (June 19).
Nearly 70 firefighters attended the scene in a bid to calm the flames, reported the Blackpool Gazette.
Workers living at the site were made to evacuate swiftly, with several believed to have lost many possessions as they fled the scene.
Firefighters shut roads around the area to safeguard members of the public while they fought the flames, with smoke billowing from the top of the three-storey Queen Street venue.
Three aerial ladder platforms and 35 firefighters using breathing apparatus tackled the fire, with building damage said to be “quite considerable”.
A spokesman for Walkabout said that the business is helping to rehouse the employees who have been left homeless, with plans in place to find them posts at the firm’s other bars across the UK.
He said: “We have given cash to all of them so they can buy new clothes and shoes to wear today, and they have all been fed and watered.”
Copyright Press Association 2013