City Road Garage demolished after blaze

Dec 19 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

THIS is all that remains of a city garage after it was ravaged by a blaze at the weekend.

The City Road Garage, in Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley, is little more than bricks and rubble after the MoT and repair centre was wrecked by the fire.

Police are treating the blaze as suspicious and continue to investigate the fire that tore through the building at around 6.30pm on Sunday.

Yesterday a demolition crane reduced the site to rubble after the owners agreed to have the site demolished.

Hugh McSherry, head of building control at Newcastle City Council, said: “Due to fire damage the building was unsafe and needed to be demolished and the owners chose to issue the appropriate notice to the local authority.”

Firefighters spent more than 20 hours dousing flames and dampening hotspots following the blaze at the garage.

The fire leapt 40ft from the garage and more than 10 vehicles inside the building were gutted. One parked outside was destroyed when a wall collapsed on it.

Health and safety inspectors from Newcastle City Council scoured the site before deciding the building was unsafe and would need to be demolished.

Yesterday a Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: “We are treating the blaze as suspicious and investigations are continuing.”