THE manager of a historic Bridgwater hotel said the business is still open despite a room being destroyed by fire. 

Firefighters were called to The Old Vicarage on St Mary's Street just before 8pm on Tuesday (December 5) after reports of smoke billowing from the first floor.

The fire, which firefighters said was started accidentally, was out by around 9.25pm.

Luckily nobody was injured but unfortunately two rooms were smoke damaged by the fire and one room was completely destroyed. 

Despite the fire drama, general manager Mike Roberts said the hotel is 'open for business' and praised his staff for their handling of the fire. 

Bridgwater Mercury:

"The fire was just a bit of bad luck for us, it has set us back, but the most important thing is that no one was hurt," Mike said. 

"We are still in business, the fire service was very positive about how our assistant manager, Gary, handled the situation. 

"I can confirm that all of the alarms went off as normal and he did a great job at making sure everyone got out safely."

The fire at the historic hotel, which was built in 1324, completely destroyed one room and damaged two others but Mike says the rooms will be back to normal soon.

"The smoke damaged room will be back up and running in the next two weeks but the other room was badly damaged and will take longer to repair, we hope to have it back up and running in January.

"I am just so glad that the rest of the building was okay, there is so much history here."

Mike said he is determined to ensure business continues as usual and thanked everyone for their support.

"I would like to say a big thank you to all of our guests for being so understanding and to the staff and fire service for their help," Mike said.

"In the last year or so we have done a lot of refurbishment work to some of our rooms and we plan to do even more.

"We want to bring this hotel back up to its old self and make it somewhere the people of Bridgwater can be proud of."