Nearly 40 people were evacuated from their homes on Monday night after a fire destroyed the upper floor of a building in the historic centre of Leeuwarden.

The blaze started in an empty apartment above a pizzeria in Grote Hoogstraat at around 4am and quickly spread. Nobody was injured, the regional fire service said.

Fire crews were able to contain the fire before it spread to neighbouring properties, but 38 people had to leave their homes, most of whom were accommodated in a nearby hotel.

More than 60 firefighters used two cherry pickers to douse the flames from above. The fire was quickly designated a “very large fire”, requiring a large-scale response, because of its location in the centre of the Frisian capital.

It took two hours to bring the blaze under control. The roof of the building collapsed and the upper floor of the two-storey building was completely gutted.

Joran Kessens, who lives in the adjacent flat, said he had just returned from a night out when one of his housemates came running down the stairs shouting: “There’s a fire!”

“I ran to the roof terrace, looked to my left and the whole roof was on fire, really big flames,” he told Omrop Fryslân.

“The fire service came within minutes, but the fire was burning very strongly. Within a few minutes the roof had collapsed.”

The fire service warned that smoke could linger in the air in the foggy conditions on Tuesday morning and advised people to avoid the area. No asbestos was released by the fire.