A fire at Shrewsbury Town’s Greenhous Meadow stadium on Tuesday led to their crucial League Two match with Port Vale being abandoned after 60 minutes.
The hosts were leading 1-0 when the floodlights failed. Club staff went to inspect the generator room, which they discovered was well ablaze.
Fans from the East Stand were swiftly evacuated, while fans in the other stands were informed to stay where they were, so that emergency services could effectively deal with the fire.
Twenty minutes later the game was formally abandoned.
Stadium Operations Manager, Ian Bebbington, described to the Shropshire Star how he and an electrician went to the generator to explore the cause of the floodlight fault.
He said,?“On arrival we opened the control room and we had a major blaze. We had no option but to close the door on it. It was beyond fire extinguishers.”
Officers from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service were on the scene within 6 minutes and had the blaze extinguished within 24 minutes.
On their website they also praised staff from the club, saying, “The evacuation was carried out in a very orderly manner; a credit to the Stewards and Safety Teams in place.”
The club are confident that repairs to the control room and generator will be complete in time for the next home game on Saturday, against Aldershot.
The game against Port Vale, which had ironically already been rearranged following a frozen pitch in February, will be rearranged for a third time in the coming weeks.