SUNDAY’S fire that consumed more than a thousand vehicles in a multi-storey car park could have been stopped if sprinklers had been fitted, Liverpool’s chief fire officer said yesterday.

Such a system would have given crews a “much better” chance of stopping the fire that engulfed seven floors of the council-owned car park after a Land Rover burst into flames, according to Dan Stephens of Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service.

Motorists abandoned their cars, 4,000 people were evacuated from the neighbouring Echo Arena, where a horse show was being held, and nearby residents and hotel guests fled as 12 fire engines and aerial ladders arrived at the scene at about 4.40pm on New Year’s Eve.