INCREDIBLE footage has been captured of the moment the House of Lords in Barrow fell to the ground, with firefighters forced to flee the scene.
An inferno on Wednesday night tore apart the historic Abbey Road building reducing it to rubble with the rest of the structure under threat of being demolished.
Roger Exley, a station manager from Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, described the footage as "extraordinary" and believed that firefighters could have been killed as the building collapsed unexpectedly.
He said: "We were not expecting a sudden collapse of the building like that. Structurally it should have taken some for that to occur.
"That could have killed our firefighters. If it was a bigger building it could have caught them out - they definitely wouldn't have been that close if they thought it was going to collapse.
"We are there as a service to try and prevent that fire from spreading so firefighters do have to get into dangerous situations.
"They have high standards of training and equipment but it still does not protect them from dangers and they are put in fatal positions or ones which could cause serious injuries.
"The footage is extraordinary and does show the dangers our firefighters face."
Mr Exley also noted that the footage will help firefighters in their ongoing investigation to establish the cause of the fire.
He said: "It shows me exactly what we are looking into and for the purpose of our investigation it shows us the state of the fire quite early on in the incident.
"If people have any more footage like this then please do pass it on to the police and the fire service so we can gather as much information as possible.
"We are not in a position to video ourselves when we're out on the job so this evidence is really important to us."
Tom Coyle, who was staying in Abbey Apartments on the opposite side of the road, was the one who captured the footage on his mobile phone as he watched the incident unfold from his window before being told to evacuate the premises by police.
The 56-year-old said: "I saw the fire engine and looked out of the windows and thought that was that.
"It started off as a tiny red glow but within about 18 minutes it had turned into a massive fire and then 20 minutes after that the building collapsed.
"I have never seen anything like - it was a bit of a shock and it was quite scary because I was so close to it."
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