Sources claim houses were filled with smoke coming from the electrics.
On Thursday the 19th of November, a fire started in popular student area Hessle Place lasting a few hours.
Hessle Place, situated between Headingly and Hyde park, is a large student community which is usually relatively peaceful. However, on the 19th of November 2020 a fire started in two of the house’s which disrupted the whole street and had the residents outside in the cold for hours.
Two fire engines pulled up to the street at around 9pm responding to a call which said, sources claim, that two of the houses were “filled with smoke coming from the electrics”.
Firefighters were on the street for around three hours and it became quite a spectacle. Many neighbours came out and gathered around the houses to see what all the commotion was.
Residents were evacuated from their houses and forced to wait outside for hours until the ‘all clear’ was given.
Katy Clark aged 21 who lives opposite the two houses was witness to the whole ordeal: “The sirens were going off for so long and when I looked out the window I saw so many fire fighters going into both of the homes, heavily cladded. There was no visible fire which was so confusing.”
The fire seems to have started because of an issue with the electrics, due to this the residents along the street have now become paranoid that it might not be an isolated issue. Suzi Stenning age 21 who also lives opposite commented that because of the fire at her neighbours house she now fears for her own home: “I felt as though I had to check my own fuse box as I was worried it would become a whole street issue, everyone seemed a bit panicked that their homes would smoke up too”.
To make matters worse for this street a power cut happened at 1am, meaning that the whole street was without electricity for a large proportion of the night. It could be possible that these two incidences are related.
So, what did cause the fire at Hessle Place? It could be a wiring issue experts say, loose wires or faulty connections can cause ‘arcing’ which leads to smoke and fire. In these circumstances the smoke from the fires in the walls will escape through the electrical outlets.
These situations are hard to prevent or predict but the quick action from the residents and firefighters saved the houses from going up in flames.
Thankfully no one was injured and there were no visible signs of property damage.
Image Credit: Suzi Stenning