King’s Strand Campus still closed as Holborn continues to burn

KINGSWAY is still alight after firefighters worked through the night to contain an underground blaze which started yesterday afternoon.

The Maughan Library is closed until further notice and the KCL Health Centre has relocated to Cavendish Health Centre.

Holborn was plunged into darkness yesterday evening after serious power cuts caused by the electrical fire.

Twenty-one firefighters are currently battling the blaze besetting Kingsway after yesterday’s cable tunnel fire.

Smoke was still spewing out of manhole shafts just outside the Virginia Wolf Building earlier this morning – the southern end of Kingsway remains cordoned off.

“@LondonFire: Part of #Kingsway is still cordoned off following the #HolbornFire. pic.twitter.com/rslk6TUhOR” @MallettGemma @JadeSargent

— MissTerriClaire (@TerriClaireX) April 2, 2015

Holborn was plunged into darkness last night after the area’s power was cut off in a bid to stop the fire.

The area affected by the #Holborn power cut… pic.twitter.com/KRyIEfATJT

— Mike Wooldridge (@mdw1989) April 1, 2015

The LFB explained: “As this was likely to be an electrical fire we had to ensure the power was off before we applied water to extinguish it.”

Waterloo bridge was closed to vehicles, while the holborn area descended into travel chaos with dozens of busses stuck in a serious traffic jam.

no cars on the bridge. Quite cool to hear only the sound of bikes & people’s footsteps #HolbornFire #waterloobridge pic.twitter.com/z5GgweNFaV

— mirry. (@m_bobeva) April 2, 2015

Wait for a bus and 12 come along – view from @affilinetUK #HolbornFire pic.twitter.com/F3LKze7rPh

— Peter Musumeci (@PeterMusumeci) April 2, 2015

A spokesman from the London Fire Brigade said: “This has been a technically difficult incident to tackle.

He went on to say that the fire was contained by 8pm last night after a seven hour struggle to contain the blaze.

“The reason that the fire is still burning is because the service tunnel is hard to reach and although firefighters have been applying water through access points throughout the night.”

“The complexity of the tunnel layout means that it will be some time until the fire is fully extinguished.”

King’s students took to twitter to complain about the closure of campus. Faith Tailer, a PhD student wrote:

@estateskings @KingsCollegeLon is the Strand campus open today? 28 days to PhD hand in, so #HolbornFire disruption not very welcome!

— Faith Taylor (@Faithatron) April 2, 2015

Another sage student warned of a potential “student meltdown” after the Library closed yesterday:

Nothing to bring on a student meltdown like the library closing down with exam season round the corner #maughanlibrary #HolbornFire

— Yo Gabba Gabba (@yollysaurus) April 2, 2015

The cause of the blaze is still unknown, however The War Studies department hazarded a guess:

HAPPENING NOW: City of London plunged into darkness, Fire Brigade battling awakening dragon, War Studies can report pic.twitter.com/0vEo40uom7

— War Studies (@warstudies) April 1, 2015