OFFICE workers on their lunch breaks stopped to watch firefighters tackle a blaze at Richmond's King's Head Hotel yesterday.

Smoke driven by high winds blew across the market place while crews from two appliances extinguished flames in a chimney flue on the western side of the building above the entrance to King Street.

King Street was closed for more than an hour while firefighters took down a chimney pot that had split during the fire and was in danger of being blown from the roof. No one was injured during the incident.