Pictures kindly supplied by Walsall Wood resident Stephen Hill

There’s currently (6:35pm, 3rd January 2017) a serious fire occurring at the the derelict former Oak Park Recreation Centre in Walsall Wood.

Reports of the incident started to come in around 5:15pm. West Midlands Fire Service currently have nine appliances attending. Interesting in that a few months ago, the Fire Service used the site as the base for a training exercise…

The centre has been due for demolition for a while, and is destined to become sports pitches for the new centre behind it. Apparently, asbestos removal had been recently completed in preparation for the building’s removal.

Stephen Hill, who also supplied most of the photos in this post, also took the following footage:

An incident support unit has been drafted in, and West Midland Ambulance Service and West Midlands Police are also in attendance.

I do hope nobody’s hurt, and thanks to the emergency services dealing with this.\

There are reports at the Walsall Advertiser here and at the Express and Star here, who unusually have a reporter tweeting at the scene.

West Midlands Fire Deputy Chief Officer Phil Hales has been posting some very informative tweets:

Initial Crews in attendance in 4 mins carrying out Assertive Safe & Effective Firefighting to contain fire. https://t.co/soyqg5nhmo

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

Area Commander Brook is now incident commander. BA crews within building extinguishing fire & carrying out search.

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

Fire is in roof of rooms adjacent to reception area

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

Incident Support Unit know in attendance to support BA operations at Oak Park Leisure Centre pic.twitter.com/EPnvIsQ56W

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

AC Ben Brook currently holding multi-agency briefing at Oak Park Leisure Centre incident pic.twitter.com/hLFtHCWeCp

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

Incident at Oak Park Leisure Centre at 15 appliances to provide sufficient BA crews. Crews making steady progress in challenging conditions. pic.twitter.com/B2ZCHLr9zV

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

A further multi agency briefing taking place with colleagues from @WMASHART & @WalsallCouncil supporting us at Oak Park Leisure Centre pic.twitter.com/65IvCD5iFW

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

@DCFOWestMidFire now in attendance at Oak Park Leisure Centre receiving brief from Incident Commander. pic.twitter.com/6SbyPx6SdR

— Andy Smith (@andysmith6359) January 3, 2017

West Midlands Fire Service at Aldridge tweeted:

UPDATE: We now have 9 appliances dealing with a severe building fire on Lichfield Road #WalsallWood

— West Midlands Fire (@WestMidsFire) January 3, 2017

If you have any more information, I’d welcome it please: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com, or comment here. Please be sensitive in any comments. Cheers.