Fire at luxury hotel Chiltern Firehouse caused by wood falling from pizza oven

A blaze that tore through a luxury London hotel favoured by celebrities was caused by wood falling from a pizza oven.

The Chiltern Firehouse, which had been due to host a star-studded post-Bafta Film Awards party on Sunday evening, was partially destroyed by the fire, which happened on Valentine’s Day.

The blaze spread through the four-storey hotel in central London via ducting, damaging parts of the ground floor and half of the second floor and destroying the third floor and roof, London Fire Brigade said.

The fire service said the fire was starting accidentally “by burning wood falling from a pizza oven and igniting the void between the basement and ground floor”.

The five-star hotel in Marylebone was a former fire station in the 1880s.

It has been repurposed as a five-star hotel and is a regular celebrity haunt.

London Brigade assistant commissioner Paul McCourt, said: “Crews worked incredibly hard for over eight hours in arduous conditions. Presented with a complex fire in a historically significant building, formerly Manchester Square Fire Station, firefighters successfully contained the fire, preventing it from spreading to neighbouring properties.”

Around 100 people were evacuated and there were no injuries as a result of the blaze, which was tackled by around 125 firefighters using 20 fire engines.