Coventry Skydome open as usual say bosses despite sign fire drama
Skydome bosses have insisted that it's business as usual despite the fire which melted part of the Coventry nightspot's entrance sign.
The Skydome - one of the city’s hottest nightspots and the home of Coventry Blaze – was evacuated on Sunday after the fire began - which is believed to be caused by an electrical fault.
Only part of the sign appeared to be affected, with the letter M and the Coventry lettering underneath damaged.
A spokesman for Mansford, the company which owns the Skydome complex, said: “We spoke to the fire brigade and to operators on site first thing on Monday morning to establish what had happened.
“All of the necessary procedures were followed in terms of evacuation and, thankfully, the only damage is that of a cosmetic nature to an external sign.
“The venue is open fully and this will not affect our work in redeveloping and repositioning the Skydome complex.”
The front entrance to the cinema remained cordoned off on Monday as experts assessed the damage.
People using the venue’s car park and Pure Gym on Monday morning were having to walk around the perimeter of the complex to access the front of the Skydome.
A spokesman for the nine-screen cinema yesterday confirmed that it was currently operating as normal.
She added: “Access is currently via the back entrance but we hope for the front doors to be open again within the very near future.”
A spokesman for JJ’s nightclub, which is next door to the Odeon, said the fire did not really affect them as they had only just opened for the night.
Fire crews were called out to the city centre entertainment complex at 10.30pm following reports that the Skydome sign near the Odeon cinema entrance had burst into flames.
The entire venue was evacuated – including people drinking in the complex’ bars as well as cinema audiences.
Crowds started gathering outside the cinema, with many sharing images of the sign ablaze on social networking sites like Twitter.
Two crews from Coventry’s Radford Road fire station and one from Foleshill initially attended the incident before asking for the hydraulic platform.
That allowed them to monitor the fire and by 11.40pm it had been put out.
Police were called out to the fire but only to control crowds that had built up nearby.
The incident was treated as an electrical fault by fire crews.
