Exeter City Football Club stadium fire deemed accidental

A fire which broke out at Exeter City Football Club’s stadium on Wednesday was started accidentally, it has been confirmed.

Firefighters tackled the blaze at St James Park after smoke was seen billowing from a portacabin near the Well Street end of the ground at about 22:00 GMT.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue said the fire started in an electrical unit, before spreading to a temporary building which housed its medical and control rooms.

The club said while the exact cause remained unknown, the fire started in an area used for waste storage.

The fire service initially sent three crews, and then two more as the flames were “threatening to spread to one of the stands”.

In a statement, the club said: “Following investigations by the fire service, it has been confirmed that the fire at St James Park last night was accidental.

“The fire service has ruled out an electrical fault as a cause.

“We are extremely grateful for the many messages of support and offers of assistance from local businesses and the wider community.

“Clean-up work is already under way, and we would like to thank everyone involved for their swift response and support.”

By midnight, the fire had been extinguished, with ventilation fans used to clear smoke. No injuries were reported.

I’m in the corner of the away end which is the Adam Stanfield stand. It’s the smallest stand out of the two here at St James Park.

I’m looking up at the damage at the electrical station which is behind the control room and medical room.

Thankfully the fire is out but you can see the damage and the charring of the Adam Stanfield stand – at one point firefighters were concerned it was spreading into the stand.

The medical room, which is next to the big scoreboard at Exeter JCP, is severely damaged as is the control room.

These are really important bits of matchday kit. You can’t run a football match without a medical room and also a control room as well.

That’s a really key part of matchday infrastructure. It has been badly damaged by this fire.

Thankfully Exeter have an away game on Saturday because if it was at home it wouldn’t have been able to go ahead.

The next first team game scheduled for the ground is on the 22 November when they host Burton Albion in a lunchtime kick off.

General manager of the club Clive Harrison said he heard about the incident on social media, before getting a call from the fire service.

He said: “The issues we may have are largely around the cabling because the cabling is on the outside of the building and some of that has been damaged by the fire.

“There’s a lot of electrical work to have a look at.

“Structurally it’s not too bad. There’s a lot of twisted metal maybe but it’s more the cabling to the control room that’s important to us now.”

An “extremely loud” evacuation fire alarm system went off, and could not be stopped because of damage to the cabling, he said.

“I guess there was a number of residents who didn’t get much sleep last night and we apologise for that,” he continued.

“We have to have a functioning control room.”

He said their priority was to get the control room ready for the next home match.

Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell told BBC Radio Devon: “When I saw the footage on social media I was really worried because it looked like the whole stand was on fire, but having been to the stadium thankfully it’s not as bad as it looked, albeit it’s still bad.”

He added: “It could have been a lot, lot worse so thank you to the to the firefighters who came out and must have done an incredible job at keeping it contained and not letting it do do any more damage.”

Regarding the next home game he said there “might be some doubt” but “as a club we’ll do everything we can”.

“But we have a little bit of time on our side because we’re away this weekend so it does help,” he added.