12 fire engines attend major blaze at warehouse near Hemel Hempstead

Hertfordshire Fire Service sent 12 engines and crews to combat a blaze near Hemel Hempstead.

At around 1:55pm on Tuesday (30 January), emergency responders were sent to a fire in a warehouse in Langley Wharf.

Firefighters tackled a blaze at a commercial unit at the site in Kings Langley while residents living nearby were advised to keep their doors and windows closed.

A spokesperson representing the fire service said: “The first crew on the scene found a warehouse well alight and subsequently 12 fire engines were sent to the scene. Firefighters searched the site to make sure everyone was safely accounted for and the fire had not spread to other units. During the course of the afternoon and evening crews worked hard to contain and extinguish the fire, which was all out shortly after midnight. Nobody was injured and the fire is believed to have started accidentally.”

Police issued road closures whilst the fire was being contained on Tuesday afternoon. Smoke from the commercial site could be seen at the nearby Abbot’s Hill School. A lacrosse event scheduled for after classes that day was cancelled as a precaution and ground staff working outside, directing traffic, wore masks for the same reason. Meanwhile lessons held inside at the school continued as normal, with doors secured and windows closed.

A school spokesperson said: “The school has a lockdown policy for emergencies such as this. We were informed by the police that was a cloud have a few implications and decided that the lockdown policy was not required but we did secure the site.”