A FIRE at a pub in Hartford Marina was caused accidentally by electrical equipment.
The fire at the Hartford Mill pub broke out at about 4.20am on Thursday morning (August 8) and was extinguished by 8.30am.
Fire investigators have examined the scene and have ruled 'the most likely cause of the fire was accidental, believed to have been started by electrical equipment'.
Cambridgeshire police had earlier said they were not treating the fire as suspicious..
Seven people were in the building when the fire started but were able to escape.
Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said two crews from Huntingdon attended and called for back up from crews at St Ives and Sawtry.
At just after 5am a further crew was called in from Ramsey along with an incident command unit from Huntingdon and an aerial platform from Stanground.
By 6am there were also crews from St Neots, Chatteris, Sutton and Yaxley at the marina.
A spokesman for the fire service said the crews were continuing to fight the fire which is in a building measuring 30m by 50m.
At 8.30am the fire was completely extinguished and firefighters were dampening down the building and checking for hot spots to avoid further fires breaking out.
The fire service spokesman said the pub, living quarters and roof were completely destroyed. The function room has been saved, but is severely smoke damaged.
A spokesman for Spirit Pub Company, which owns the Fayre & Square pub, said: 'We can confirm that a fire broke out at the Hartford Mill early this morning. There were seven people, including the general manager, in the building at the time of the fire, and they all were safely evacuated.
'The emergencies services were called and are still tending to the building before starting their investigations into the cause of the fire.
'Until a full investigation has been carried out we cannot comment on the cause of fire, estimate the total cost of the damage or predict a date on when the pub will be reopened.'
Richard Dykes, incident commander, said: 'Due to the severity of the fire when we arrived, we were unable to save the public house itself, but were able to stop it from spreading to the function room.
'This was a large fire, which has destroyed the home of a family and a popular venue used by the local community. Thankfully everyone was able to get out of the property quickly and unharmed.'
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