THE HIVE in Worcester is now re-open following a fire in the kitchens of the cafe last week.

The cafe is still closed and the ground level windows have been blocked out and boarded up, but the library is now open to the public.

Councillor Lucy Hodges, Cabinet member for for communities at Worcestershire County Council said: "I want to say a big thank you to everyone involved in the huge clear up after the fire we had at the Hive on Thursday night.

"It's amazing that we only had to close the building for two days.

"A big thank you to the county council staff, the university staff and Bell Rock for all the hard work they have done to ensure the Hive can re-open.

"It is great to see community users coming in and taking advantage of the facilities,"

The blaze broke out at around 6:30pm on Thursday September 3rd. Early investigations show damage has been caused to the kitchens and parts of the café.

There is also smoke damage in the children’s library and in one of the meeting rooms but the rest of the building is unscathed.

There was a large amount of soot around the building and on the upper levels,but, no damage has been caused to the archives.

A clean-up operation took place over the weekend and extra safety checks were carried out ahead of the re-opening on Monday.

No-one was injured in the fire as the building had closed at 6pm so no staff or visitors were inside at the time.

Fire crews from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service were on the scene within minutes and stayed for around four hours making the area safe.

A statement from Worcestershire County Council and the University of Worcester said: “We would like to thank Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service for all their efforts in attending the fire and also our colleagues at Bellrock who have done an amazing job especially getting rid of large amounts of water.”