Around 100 customers were evacuated from the Shard after an oven fire broke out in a 33rd-floor restaurant on 4 August.
London Fire Brigade was called to the floor, which hosts Chinese restaurant Hutong, at around 11am after a fire started in the kitchen. Seven fire appliances and 35 firefighters attended the scene in Southwark, south London, but found that the sprinkler system triggered by the small oven fire had put it out.
No injuries were reported among diners and staff who were evacuated from restaurants on levels 31, 32 and 33 of London’s tallest building (at 306m). After being forced to evacuate the building, visitor Katie Buckley tweeted: 'Just had to walk 245m down stairs because there was a fire alarm at the Shard and all the lifts were broken’.
The rest of the building on St Thomas Street was unaffected. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Managers at Hutong, which offers a signature menu at £68 per person, tweeted that the restaurant will be closed until further notice.
This was the second fire at the Shard in just four days – firefighters were called to a blaze at 6.50pm on 1 August. Station manager Matt Burrows, who was at the scene on 4 August, commented: 'The building's sprinkler system did its job and suppressed the fire in its early stages, which prevented any serious damage.
'This incident highlights the clear benefits of sprinklers to businesses and we would urge all companies to install them. As well as being potentially life saving devices, sprinklers and other fire suppression systems help with business continuity by minimising disruption and allowing businesses to get back to normal as soon as possible.'