Bridge Street in Northampton will ‘remain CLOSED until further notice’ following major blaze at historic building

Bridge Street in Northampton remains closed for a fourth day following the major blaze that took hold of a historic town centre building.

West Northamptonshire Council has confirmed that the street “remains closed for vehicles until further notice”.

A diversion is in place at St Giles Square to manage traffic and motorists are advised to follow the signs in place.

The first 999 call about the incident was made at 11pm on Tuesday (August 22), as the historic Balloon Bar began to burn.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service took just four minutes to arrive at the building in Bridge Street, which was once home to the Angel Hotel built in the 1800s.

A total of nine appliances were on the scene in total, tackling the blaze during the early hours of Wednesday morning (August 23).

After arriving at the scene, the fire service received information that a number of people had been spotted behind Balloon Bar.

Northampton woman Verity Lee told this newspaper of how she watched on in horror, as a group of young lads scaled a fence and began knocking on a flat window behind the burning building. A man inside had no idea there was a fire.

The man, along with three kittens and the mother cat, were able to climb onto the fire escape to safety. It was thought one of the kittens was left inside.

The fire service has since confirmed no other rescue operations took place.

Bridge Street remains closed as the former Balloon Bar lies in ruins next to the former Fat Cats bar – which also burned down 11 years ago.

A local businessman has since purchased the town properties and has planning permission to build 44 flats and commercial units at a cost of £10 million.

It is hoped that work will begin on the project next year, finally bringing an end to the scaffolding which has been propping up Fat Cats since 2012.

Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward as fire crews continue to work out the cause of the inferno.