A fire which is believed to have started in a sauna has caused severe damage to a leisure centre in Wiltshire.

Around 60 firefighters tackled the blaze at the Lime Kiln leisure centre in Wootton Bassett at around 10.00am on Saturday 18 December. When crews arrived, smoke was already pouring out from the roof.

Staff and customers were evacuated and firefighters wearing breathing apparatus carried out a full search of the building to ensure that everyone had left safely. Firefighters had to cut away at large sections of the roof to effectively fight the fire.

Nine fire engines, two control units, an aerial appliance and a chemical incident unit attended the fire. Crews remained on the site for around 24 hours.

Simon Routh-Jones, deputy chief officer of Wiltshire Fire and Rescue, told the Swindon Advertiser that tackling the blaze was made more difficult because of the structure of the building.

“Where it has been added on to there is a complex structure in the roof area,” he said. “The fire spread into a number of suspended ceilings and it’s like a rabbit warren of voids.

“We managed to contain the fire to about one third of the building and were confident we were on top of the main areas. Chemicals were originally of a concern but none were involved in any way.”