Beaumont Street to partially re-open

Update at 2:40pm on Monday, 20 April

Road closures

Oxfordshire County Council is planning to partially re-open Beaumont Street in central Oxford following later today following Friday’s fire at the Randolph Hotel.

A decision has been taken following a safety inspection of the gable end at the hotel this morning. This was undertaken by experts on behalf of the hotel management.

The gable end has been found to be safe – which means that the westbound side of Beaumont Street can be reopened.

However the hotel is engaged in a clean-up operation. Part of this process will involve the use of cherry-pickers to clean up the roof. This will require the use of the part of Beaumont Street immediately adjacent to the hotel. As such this section of road will remain closed and eastbound traffic will remain diverted via Walton Street.

About the incident

Firefighters were called to the scene at 4.39pm following 999 calls reporting of smoke coming from the roof of the building.

A total of 14 fire engines attended the hotel including two high reach appliances.
South Central Ambulance Service and Thames Valley Police were also in attendance.

The fire was not believed to be suspicious. It is believed to have started in the ground floor kitchen. Fire investigators remain at the scene on Saturday. Scaffolding is today being erected around the Randolph Hotel building

The Fire and Rescue Service has scaled back its presence to four fire engines and firefighters continue monitor the fire scene for hot-spots. It is anticipated that firefighters will maintain a presence throughout the weekend.

During the fire on Friday (April 17) there was a major exercise to evacuate guests and staff from the affected building and from adjoining buildings. All of the floors and rooms in the hotel were searched - nobody needed to be rescued.

All guests were accommodated at alternative hotels overnight by the Randolph Hotel. Urgent medication and passports needed overnight were collected from rooms by the fire and rescue service.

All overseas tourists needing to catch flights were assisted to do so. Fire crews also retrieved outfits, rings table plans and decorations for a party of guests making up a wedding party - with the ceremony due today (Saturday). Firefighters will remove passports and luggage from rooms of other tourists during the course of today.

Three people were assessed by South Central Ambulance Service at the scene yesterday and did not require further medical attention.

Area Manager Peter Cleary from Oxfordshire's Fire and Rescue Service said: "Although the fire was a dramatic one we did successfully manage to prevent it from spreading to large parts of the hotel. We've done our very best to help those who were staying in the hotel. Our best wishes in particular go to the wedding party who had been resident at the hotel."

"We would also like to wish overseas visitors who became involved in this incident a safe onward journey."

Councillor Rodney Rose, the Deputy Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: "The county council is very proud of its fire and rescue service and yet again our firefighters have responded magnificently - this time to a very high profile incident at one of Oxford City Centre's most well known hotels.

"On behalf of the community, my thanks goes to them, to all other county council staff involved in managing this incident and also officers from our partner agencies such as Thames Valley Police and South Central Ambulance Service."