{"id":123809,"date":"2025-05-22T23:44:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T23:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/123809\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T23:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T23:44:18","slug":"plumes-of-thick-black-smoke-blot-out-bristol-skyline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/123809\/","title":{"rendered":"Plumes of thick black smoke blot out Bristol skyline"},"content":{"rendered":"

A huge fire broke out at a hospital in Bristol this afternoon, with patients and their loved ones evacuated as firefighters swooped in.<\/p>\n

Emergency services made their way onto the roof of St Michael’s Hospital, a maternity facility, to battle the blaze.<\/p>\n

But dramatic footage from the scene showed thick black plumes of smoke billowing out over the building.<\/p>\n

Jess Hutchinson, 22, an expectant mother inside whose waters had broken, said it was “scary” hearing the fire break out on the roof, the BBC reported.<\/p>\n

\"Bristol<\/p>\n

Patients and their loved ones had to be evacuated as firefighters swooped in<\/p>\n

X<\/p>\n

Matthew Burden, from nearby Weston-super-Mare, was forced outside while the blaze broke out.<\/p>\n

Burden’s wife was in labour with their third baby, and he said he was “really eager to get back” to her.<\/p>\n

“I went out to get some food, came back and obviously the alarm went off,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They said all partners had to leave. Everyone was going down the fire exit quite fast.<\/p>\n

“When we came out, I saw black smoke, all up in flames.”<\/p>\n

LATEST FIRE UPDATES FROM GB NEWS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"St<\/p>\n

Reports from the scene detailed how midwives sprung into action to help pregnant women outside (file photo)<\/p>\n

GOOGLE<\/p>\n

Some pregnant women also had to be moved outside, where reports from the scene detailed how midwives sprang into action to help them.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Avon Fire and Rescue said: “We’re currently responding to a fire on Southwell Street, Bristol.<\/p>\n

“We encourage people to avoid the area while we deal with the incident. Further updates will be issued.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed that the nearby St Michael’s Hill was closed to vehicles and pedestrians as it urged locals to avoid the area if possible.<\/p>\n

\"St<\/p>\n

‘When we came out, I saw black smoke, all up in flames,’ witness Matthew Burden said<\/p>\n

FIN PORTER<\/p>\n

The Fire Service later confirmed that the fire “has safely been extinguished”.<\/p>\n

No casualties have so far been reported from the blaze, and its cause remains unconfirmed while an investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A huge fire broke out at a hospital in Bristol this afternoon, with patients and their loved ones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,252,4884,12,28908,16,1259,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-123809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fire","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-south-west","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-uk-news","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114554147035401630","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}