The recently refurbished Noir Bar in Weybridge has been forced to close, after a fire yesterday evening ripped through the right side of the roof and destroyed the upstairs kitchen.

Four fire engines arrived at the premises in Heath Road, next to Weybridge station, at about 6.45pm and it took 25 fire officers more than two hours to extinguish the blaze on the second floor.

The exact cause is still not known, but early indications suggest the recent hot weather might have sparked a natural fire in the ducting of the roof, which had been exposed to the sun all day.

Although there were people inside the downstairs bar area at the time - taking part in the Touch Business Networking event for local businesses - nobody was injured because the fire did not spread beyond the kitchen.

The bar will still have to close its doors for the foreseeable future as the downstairs is now flooded due to fire officers pumping water on to the building.

Paul Benewith, marketing director of the bar, was at the scene when the fire started.

He said: "When the alarm started to go off I was outside the building talking to some of the networkers and we all assumed it was a car alarm until one of the bar staff grabbed me 30 seconds later and said there was a fire in the kitchen.

"I told both staff members to get out of the building and raise the alarm, which they duly did."

The bar, formerly known as Abaya, was bought by new owners in September 2007 and they had only just finished refurbishing it. Mr Benewith said the fire was "devastating" for the new management.

He said: "The whole of the kitchen is completely gutted and downstairs is flooded. It will be a long clean up before we can get in there. The owners are devastated because they have spent a year and a half renovating it and it is now the premier club in the area. It's going to effect a lot of people."

He said the kitchen is only used for storage, so the fire would not have been caused by cooking appliances. He also said it was unlikely to have been an electrical fault as the electrics in the building had all been tested.

He added: "It could have been a lot worse. The kitchen has steel metal walls that created an oven effect and contained the fire.

"Luckily it didn't happen on a Friday or a Saturday afternoon when the place is really crowded.

"We have strict fire regulations and everyone is trained so it was all done by the book. The fire officers appreciated how everything was done. It's a credit to the Noir Bar and the management."