Brighton’s Churchill Square shopping centre evacuated due to fire

The site is expected to remain closed for 4 hours


Brighton’s Churchill Square shopping centre has been evacuated due to an acetylene cylinder catching alight in a storage area where building work is being carried out.

Four fire engines are currently at the scene along with the Incident Command Unit from Lewes.

The fire is now out, but crews remain at the scene cooling the cylinder which is expected to take some time meaning the site will remain closed for at least four hours.

Speaking exclusively to The Sussex Tab, a Sussex Student who was there shopping said “We were in Debenhams when an alarm went off saying ‘please evacuate there is an emergency so we had to leave through the staff exit”.

Another said “It’s chaos. It’s all been cornered off, alarms are going off and all the staff are being sent out of the stores”.

The public and staff have now been let back in but the site still remains cornered off.