A fire in the post room at ITV's South Bank studio in London caused 'GMB' to be replaced with a re-run of 'Dinner Date' at the last minute.
ITV magazine show ‘Good Morning Britain’ was dramatically taken off air on Friday morning as a fire broke out in the post room at the broadcaster’s London studio.
Four fire engines and 21 firefighters responded to an emergency call just before 7am from ITV’s South Bank headquarters. They report that around 50 people were evacuated from the building, before they got the blaze under control and extinguished by 8:30am. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
However, the fire meant that the scheduled broadcast of ‘Good Morning Britain’ had to be cancelled, with viewers tuning in to a repeat of the cooking game show ‘Dinner Date’. It remained off-air until the ‘Lorraine’ show began as planned at 8:30am.
Every cloud! @kategarraway @ranvir01 making the most of the opportunity with Soho Blue Watch @GMB pic.twitter.com/jEceECDdcc
— Ben Shephard (@benshephard) March 25, 2016
“Part of a post room on the first floor was damaged by fire. The fire meant that ‘Good Morning Britain’ was taken off air,” a statement by the fire department read.
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“We've been evacuated because of a fire alarm. Everyone's safe and we're hoping to get back in and on air ASAP,” the ‘Good Morning Britain’ official Twitter account posted later in the morning.
Presenter Ben Shepherd later tweeted a picture of his co-presenters Kate Garraway and Ranvir Singh posing with some of the firefighters outside in the street. Later, he posted a video at around 8am of the team in a nearby café.
Four fire engines & 20 firefighters are dealing with a fire at ITV studios. More soon. Pic @holly pic.twitter.com/i0Gb4LwogX
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) March 25, 2016
Asking the rest of his team about the chances of getting back into the studio to get some work done, Singh replied: “Zero. Not going to happen now.” Kate Garraway added: “Chances of a bacon sandwich though are quite high.”
A similar thing happened back in August 2015 when another fire in the studio caused the building to be evacuated. On that occasion, a staff member confirmed that a “fuse box overheated and went on fire on the third floor”, where the broadcast is made.
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