The first and worst of three fires at Sheffield Ski Village over a three week period between April 29th and mid May is no longer being treated as suspicious according to police.

The first fire was the most devastating, destroying the main building, subsequent fires were in smaller buildings and on the artificial slope material and police say these are thought to have been started deliberately.

They were not the first fires at the centre, which has one of the world’s largest artificial ski slope areas, which had seen fires in previous years too.

Police say the first fire is not being treated as suspicious, although investigations in to the cause are ongoing.

The fires led to the closure of the main centre and around 50 staff being made redundant, however some ski clubs are reported to still be using sections of slope for training.

Police say since the fires and the closure of the centre there has been widespread criminal activity on the large site, including attempts to steal slope material, and that arrests have been made.

Recent thefts of valuable steel cables from the site prompted the following reply from the slope, "At present the owner is undecided what will happen on the site. I think Sheffield need to take a hard look at the antisocial behaviour and tackle that before anything is done."


Photo by Dan Johnson on Twitter.

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