Fire at James Street Station, Liverpool

Fire crews have been called to a fire at James Street underground railway station in Liverpool city centre this morning after a fire alarm was triggered. Crews were alerted at 5.11am and on scene at 5.18am, with five fire engines in attendance.

Crews located an electrical fire in a substation on level five underground and two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus under rapid deployment tackled the fire with CO2 extinguishers to prevent the escalation of the fire. 

Crews liased with staff and trains have been stopped in the area, with crews now monitoring the substation and awaiting engineers to isolate the electrical supply.

After a further alarm activation and light smoke on the first floor, an adjacent hotel has been evacuated as a precaution. This is believed to be smoke from the extraction system in the train station rather than a separate source of fire. 

Engineers are now in attendance and have isolated power to the affected transformer room. 

The incident is ongoing.

INCIDENT UPDATE: 6.45am

The transformer involved in the fire has been isolated and four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus have extinguished the fire with CO2 extinguishers. Crews are monitoring temperature at the incident site using thermal imaging cameras with temperature dropping significantly.