It has been revealed locally that the man who died in a fire in Hockley, Birmingham on Sunday 17 Aug was local poet and musician, Louis Campbell.

Campbell was highly regarded in the Midlands spoken word and arts scene.

He performed in the ska/reggae bands 'The International Beat’, 'Dub Rokkaz’ and ‘Citizen X’.

Firefighters were called to the fire of the Barr Street building on Sunday monring.

The first crew responded and immediately requested the fire be upgraded to 10 appliances (fire engines), this helped to contain the fire to the affected property with only a small section spreading to neighbouring businesses.

The building contained a music studio in the basement, a delivery food kitchen on the ground floor, Central Birmingham Cricket Academy to the rear and residential flats on the upper floors.

After the fire was contained, reports of a person found in cardiac arrest on one of the upper floors.

West Midlands Ambulance Service sent critical care paramedics and members of their Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) to the scene, however it quickly became apparent nothing could be done to help him and many crews were stood down as HART who are trained for these situations took over.

On Sunday, West Midlands Fire Service put the initial social media report saying: ‘We have 12 crews in attendance at Barr Street, Hockley, Birmingham, where they have responded to a Factory Fire. ‘Please avoid the area, where possible.’

West Midlands Police later added: ‘We're investigating after the discovery of a body following a fire at a building.

‘Emergency services were called to Barr Street at just before 8am today (17 August).

‘A body was sadly discovered and we're working alongside fire service colleagues to establish the cause of the blaze and full circumstances.

‘Anyone with information can get in touch via Live Chat on our website, or by calling 101, quoting log 980 of 17/8/25.’

ENDS