19 August 2010

8.30pm: More than 30 firefighters are currently at the scene of a fire at the old Odeon Cinema site in Cambridge Street, Aylesbury. They were called at 7.28pm.

Three crews from Aylesbury, one from Winslow and one from Broughton are attending, along with a turntable ladder, the Command and Control Unit and a number of officers.

The fire is on the ground floor of the three storey, 50 metre by 50 metre building. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus are currently using main jets.

Group Manager Mick Martin, who is one of the officers at the scene, said: "Firefighters gained access to the building, which was boarded up and secured with steel shutters, and have quickly surrounded the fire.

"They have brought it under control and managed to limit the damage to about 10 per ent of the ground floor.

"The cause of the fire is obviously being treated as suspicious at this stage."

Cambridge Street is shut from the New Street roundabout to the town centre, and part of New Street has also been closed to traffic.

Officers from Thames Valley Police are also at the scene.

Firefighters started to leave at about 10.30pm. They carried out three reinspections during the night.