Fire drama in lorry at town hotel

A potential explosion in a lorry outside a Black Country hotel was narrowly avoided thanks to the quick-thinking driver and firefighters.

The electrical fire broke out in a lorry parked outside the Park Inn in West Bromwich.

Fire crews and police were called to the hotel near to junction one of the M5 motorway after the fire broke out as the lorry was delivering bottles of BOC gas.

A small exclusion zone was set up around the lorry and guests were stopped from using the main entrance to the hotel yesterday afternoon because of the threat of the fire spreading and causing the bottles to explode.

The driver tackled the blaze with a fire extinguisher before fire crews from West Bromwich arrived to put it out.

They also removed the bottles from the back of the lorry while the blaze was being put out.

Watch commander Phil Richards said they managed to extinguish it before it could spread to where the bottles were stored, narrowly avoiding a major disaster.

"We removed all the cylinders from the vehicle as it took a while to put it out because it was an electrical fire," he said.