Firefighters tackle huge blaze at Holiday Inn

A Holiday Inn has been evacuated after the building went up in flames.

Emergency services were called at around 4.30pm to the hotel in Walsall, West Midlands, and more than 50 firefighters were at the scene to put it out.

Footage of the two-storey building in Wolverhampton Road West, Willenhall, shows it has almost been completely destroyed by the fire.

No-one has been reported injured as the hotel was evacuated.

A Holiday Inn spokesman told the BBC: “The safety and wellbeing of our guests and colleagues is our highest priority.

“We can confirm that our guests and employees have been accounted for and no-one has been injured.”

Neil Griffiths, the incident commander for West Midlands Fire Service, said: “We responded to the fire at the hotel at approximately 4.30pm today. Because of the height of the fire, we’ve had over 50 firefighters with specialist equipment in use.

“There’s been some significant firefighting operations as you can see from the devastation.

“What we are trying to do is restore everything back to normality. We want to find out what the cause of the fire is and any future investigations we can do over the next few hours.

“We are going to be here for a considerable amount of time due to the size of the building.

“However, all the smoke you can see shouldn’t affect all the surrounding houses, however it would be advisable to keep your windows and doors shut for the rest of the evening.”