Contractors attended the historic London Road building on Tuesday to carry out minor demolition work to make the hotel safe.

Much of the work took place on the roof which was destroyed by the fire, which started shortly after 7.15pm last Wednesday. Around 50 firefighters attended the scene including crews from as far away as Ripley and Leek.

The blaze is believed to have started in the central staircase of the building and firefighters had to make a bell tower at the top of the hotel safe before they could hose it down. The majority of the fire was extinguished by 11pm but Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service remained on the scene overnight as a precaution.

Eyewitness Maxine Maybury paid tribute to the crews who dealt with the fire. She said: "It was my daughter, Hanna Maybury, who spotted the smoke coming out of the building as we drove past, at 7.18pm.

"I stopped the car, reversed and could see large flames in the stairwell of the building so I rang the fire brigade straight away.

"They arrived well within three minutes and were quick in to action but it was clear the fire was well underway and that one engine was not sufficient.

"We left to let them get on with the job but when we drove towards Tesco an hour later we were really shocked to see huge flames coming out of the roof with several fire engines working hard to get the fire under control, and the road cordoned off by police.

"It's all very sad it was such a lovely building and a real shame that it had been left to ruin.

"The fire men and women were fantastic and they should be really proud of themselves."

Sarah Eccles added: "I got there just after the flames died down but from what people were telling me the flames were spectacular and were several feet coming out of the top of the building. I've never seen so many fire fighters working on one building, let alone something on this scale.

"When the fog cleared a little I could see that from the back of Haddon Hall half the roof was missing and there were still flickers of flames around 45 minutes after the fire started.

"A lot of the people I spoke to whilst watching were deeply saddened by the fire as they remember living there or working there in its heyday.

"I can safely say that it definitely stirred up our neighbourhood. I've never seen so many people out at that time of night. It's saddening really to see a building that was once something going up in flames."
An investigation into the fire is ongoing.