Firefighters used a snake-eye camera to tackle a blaze in a cavity wall in a property in Hove.
Western Road was closed to traffic as four crews from Hove and Preston Circus in Brighton fought the fire in Lansdowne Place, Hove.
The aerial ladder platform was also used as the fire spread over three floors of the building in the Brunswick area.
Buses and cars were diverted within minutes of the fire being reported shortly before 11.40am yesterday (Tuesday 20 August).
Western Road reopened at about 1.15pm while fire crews remained on the scene for some time afterwards.
East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said that the snake-eye camera – a long extendable rod with a camera on the end – was used in hard-to-reach narrow spaces such as cavity walls.