Possible Fire incident at The Grand on Saturday evening 18/3/2017.

[jonnybgood]

There were 4/5 Fire appliances,including 2 turntables at the "Grand" the old bingo,and casino hall on Lord street late last night,they were there for well over 2 hours,with the fire inspectors vehicle also in attendance,there was quite a lot of smoke coming from the top floor of the building,with NO apparent flames showing from the windows,so hopefully it was contained in an isolated part of the building.
Looks possible that someone has gained access to the inside,and NOT for the first time in recent weeks,as how else could a fire start in a supposedly empty building ?
Reports from this incident will no doubt be made public knowledge soon.As all I could see was the appliances which were there,and thought I would post something on here,otherwise people may not get to find out anything until the next editions of the Midweek,or the Champion come out

[Little Londoner]

how else could a fire start in a supposedly empty building ?

Deterioration of Electrical wiring.
Rodents gnawing through wiring.
Fault on the main electrical supply into the building.
Sparks from a passing steam locomotive.
Sun being magnified by imperfections in a window pane.
Bird flying through an open/broken window carrying a lit discarded cigarette.
Spontaneous combustion, chemical soaked cleaning rags left together in a cupboard.

[Darkside]

Deterioration of Electrical wiring.
Rodents gnawing through wiring.
Fault on the main electrical supply into the building.
Sparks from a passing steam locomotive.
Sun being magnified by imperfections in a window pane.
Bird flying through an open/broken window carrying a lit discarded cigarette.
Spontaneous combustion, chemical soaked cleaning rags left together in a cupboard.

Your last suggestion would seem most likely, minus the word 'spontaneous'. Strange how combustible these inconvenient old buildings sat on prime sites seem to be.

[torchwud]

must be painfull for the owners to see it empty for so long paying the bills for it, what could they possibly do about it??, looks like the same fate as every other empty building in need of re development, sudden fire...yet the plods do nothing and the insurance keep paying out...and no one is found responsible

[Mr. Brightside]

must be painfull for the owners to see it empty for so long paying the bills for it, what could they possibly do about it??,

It can't be that painful for them otherwise they'd have found a use for it or sold it.