:00:18. > :00:21.The huge fire at The Royal Clarence Hotel in the centre of Exetdr
:00:22. > :00:23.has tonight spread onto the High Street.
:00:24. > :00:26.The blaze started inside an art gallery on Cathedral Grden
:00:27. > :00:27.just after five o'clock this morning.
:00:28. > :00:29.It's thought the flames had been brought under control,
:00:30. > :00:35.the fire spread to the historic Royal Clarence Hotel next door.
:00:36. > :00:37.Guests have described being evacuated from the buhlding
:00:38. > :00:42.More than 100 firefighters have now been battling the blaze
:00:43. > :00:57.Spotlight's John Danks is at the scene with the latest
:00:58. > :01:04.There's still a lot of firefighters here, more than 100, with 26 pumps,
:01:05. > :01:10.some of them coming from Dorset I have told. You can see that they are
:01:11. > :01:12.using aerial platforms to try and attack the blaze from above.
:01:13. > :01:18.Thousands of gallons of watdr have been pumped onto the fire throughout
:01:19. > :01:25.the day, some of that coming from the river Exe. South-west w`ter have
:01:26. > :01:30.been asking customers not to use too much water. As Harry Bradsh`w
:01:31. > :01:31.reports, this is a fire that has swept through the historic city
:01:32. > :01:37.centre of Exeter. The landscape of the city,
:01:38. > :01:39.changed for ever. This is one of Exeter's most iconic
:01:40. > :01:42.buildings, dating back centtries. I don't like seeing
:01:43. > :01:47.anything like this. It's devastating, absolutelx
:01:48. > :01:51.devastating. I've had the privilege to go behind
:01:52. > :02:02.the cord. The firefighters
:02:03. > :02:04.are incredibly brave. They have been fighting this
:02:05. > :02:06.all day, and you can see, some of them are literally
:02:07. > :02:08.out on their feet. The main thing is, they stax safe,
:02:09. > :02:13.and we have got the ambulance crews The scene that Exeter woke tp
:02:14. > :02:18.to this morning. Following a loud, sharp
:02:19. > :02:20.alarm just after 5am, More than 100 firefighters have been
:02:21. > :02:24.at the scene dealing with the blaze whilst people were evacuated
:02:25. > :02:30.from neighbouring buildings. My dad called up to say that we had
:02:31. > :02:33.got to evacuate. So I got changed, and I went
:02:34. > :02:36.downstairs, and it sounded like it was raining
:02:37. > :02:43.because of all the crackling. And so I quickly opened the door
:02:44. > :02:47.and I saw the huge smoke and ash coming from the building and then
:02:48. > :02:56.I saw these great, orange flames. We didn't realise
:02:57. > :02:58.it was a real fire. We just thought it was an error
:02:59. > :03:01.in the system and we all rushed out. And of course we immediatelx
:03:02. > :03:04.realised, because we came ott of the hotel and there was falling
:03:05. > :03:07.debris, burning stuff coming down. Everyone got out of the hotdl,
:03:08. > :03:10.and it's a shock, It looked like the fire
:03:11. > :03:27.was contained, but that changed It's incredibly difficult
:03:28. > :03:30.for two reasons. The first reason is
:03:31. > :03:32.the structural integrity. The second reason is the agd
:03:33. > :03:37.of the building and the number What we have here is a very,
:03:38. > :03:42.very old building, timber frame with very high fire loading
:03:43. > :03:44.which makes it very difficult What we have is an island
:03:45. > :03:50.of medieval builders behind us. We lost 25% of the city
:03:51. > :03:52.during the Blitz. Lots during the development
:03:53. > :03:56.of the 60s and 70s. This is the key to the ancidnt
:03:57. > :03:58.part of Exeter. The emergency services have been
:03:59. > :04:13.here for hours and they expdct to be A short time ago I spoke to the
:04:14. > :04:14.incident commander, who said they were trying to stop the fird
:04:15. > :04:20.spreading further. There's a number of seats fhre,
:04:21. > :04:23.and we've had a lot of floors collapsing, and that obviously
:04:24. > :04:26.causes other seats of fire, so you have got a number of fires burning
:04:27. > :04:29.in there at the moment. And we keep getting fires
:04:30. > :04:31.tracking across the voids. The roof voids.
:04:32. > :04:33.That is our main focus The Royal Clarence was
:04:34. > :04:39.the first venue in England to call itself a hotel.
:04:40. > :04:42.It dates back to 1769. Beatrix Potter stayed
:04:43. > :04:45.there in the late 1800s It's been a terribly
:04:46. > :04:47.black day for the city. It's where lots of
:04:48. > :04:54.functions take place. Well, of course the city
:04:55. > :04:59.will recover, because we have that spirit, and hopefully, it whll be
:05:00. > :05:11.a little bit of a long time, This evening there have been some
:05:12. > :05:19.reports that the fire has spread to the high Street, to Costa coffee.
:05:20. > :05:23.Fire officers say that they are keeping an eye on the integrity of
:05:24. > :05:28.the building. One encouraging Capote that there have been no cracks
:05:29. > :05:30.appearing on what is now effectively the shell of this hotel.
:05:31. > :05:33.To other news now and a man has been jailed for two years,
:05:34. > :05:37.for driving his car at his dstranged wife and their child in the Royal
:05:38. > :05:40.The court was shown this dr`matic CCTV footage of 55-year-old
:05:41. > :05:41.Mark Wiggins ramming the victim's car.
:05:42. > :05:43.Wiggins also struck a member of hospital staff
:05:44. > :05:49.A long-awaited Government rdport on the future of Plymouth Ahrport
:05:50. > :05:55.has concluded that it would be unable to operate
:05:56. > :05:56.passenger services without a subsidy.
:05:57. > :05:58.Campaigners fighting to re-open the airport have admitted
:05:59. > :06:00.they would need ?9 million of Government support
:06:01. > :06:05.But they claim they could h`ve it up and running by 2020,
:06:06. > :06:10.despite the fact no subsidies are available.
:06:11. > :06:14.On to the weekend weather now and here's Bee.
:06:15. > :06:23.Good evening. We have a fairly quiet weekend of whether I had. Lhke
:06:24. > :06:27.today, we will hear -- will see some early mist and fog, and gendrally
:06:28. > :06:32.the weekend will be rather cloudy. It will be staying mild with
:06:33. > :06:37.temperatures above well you would expect for the time of year.
:06:38. > :06:42.Tonight, quite quiet with some low cloud and places and the odd spot of
:06:43. > :06:46.Brazil. Most places will be dried. With that cloud cover, it is not
:06:47. > :06:49.going to be a cold night. Most places staying in double figures,
:06:50. > :06:54.some places getting down to eight Celsius. Another great start
:06:55. > :06:58.tomorrow, again, some mist `nd fog, and it will take time to brhghten
:06:59. > :07:04.up. The best spells of sunshine to the Lee of any high ground `nd
:07:05. > :07:08.staying quite mild with temperatures at around 15 Celsius. On Saturday
:07:09. > :07:11.night, if you're out trick or treating, it should be dry with
:07:12. > :07:16.increasing amounts of mist `nd fog forming. Staying quite quiet and
:07:17. > :07:24.mild as we head into next wdek. Have a good night. That's all for now.
:07:25. > :07:27.Our next news is tomorrow on BBC One at 5:50pm. From all of us on the
:07:28. > :07:35.late team, good night. to come into the beginning of next
:07:36. > :07:40.week as well. Now the national picture.
:07:41. > :07:48.Hello, it's been a pretty good week for getting out and enjoying the
:07:49. > :07:49.autumn colours, especially if you have seen autumn