Weston Super Mare pier fire

[skier-hughes]

Weston Super MAre pier appears like it will be toally destryed by fire.
It started sometime around 7am this morning.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7528165.stm

News reports are so funny though, "Flames can be seen from Wales"..... which is only a sort distance across the water!!!!!!!!

Grade 2 listed, if the news is right, and only just had some refurbishment by new owners.

Graham

 

[Ian Bond]

Oh dear - hope nobody is hurt.

Was this one of the film locations for Remains of the Day, and no doubt many others?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vdJmQBhG_7o&feature=related

 

[Ian Bond]

Destroyed by fire in 1930 too...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2464422/Weston-super-Mare-Grand-Pier-fire-wreaks-havoc.html

 

[MdB]

News reports are so funny though, "Flames can be seen from Wales"..... which is only a sort distance across the water!!!!!!!!

Well it depends on your definition of short. Wales is 9 miles away across the water.

Very sad though. It looks like it will be a total loss.

 

[michael]

I wish the media and the local the authorities would express the same sentiments and concerns about our pier in Hastings East Sussex. It was designed by Eugenius Birch and constructed between 1869 and 1872. Sadly it was closed to the public in 2006 not because of a major drama such as a fire but simply because of neglect by its owners, which has left the structure unsafe and in danger of collapse (or so the councils surveyors would suggest) Perhaps the silver lining in the loss at Weston Super Mare will be to highlight how important these structures are to the public at large and kick the authorities in other seaside towns such as Hastings into action. At least the main superstructure of the pier in Weston still appears to be in tact so they’re still one step ahead of us at least.

 

[ilikecobwebs]

That's interesting. I live only 14 miles from Weston and haven't heard a thing about it. (Mind you, I didn't know we'd had a hurricane in 1987 until we received frantic phonecalls from friends asking if we had survived the night!). Seeing flames from the Welsh coast would be dead easy.....modest pair of binos would pick out the details.

 

[Pford75]

From the Times online....

The owners of one of Britain’s longest piers vowed last night to rebuild it after a devastating fire destroyed the structure, at Weston-super-Mare, in Somerset, in only 90 minutes.

By mid-morning yesterday all that remained of the town’s 104-year-old Grand Pier, refurbished recently at a cost of more than £1 million, was a tangle of twisted steel girders.

With it disappeared the holiday dreams of thousands of visitors who were expected to descend on the town over the coming weeks. To add insult to injury, hail and torrential rain later sent sunbathers scurrying for shelter.


Times Archive, 1930: Weston-Super-Mare pier fire
Thousands of people gathered on the sea front to watch the fire, which was reflected in the incoming tide

In pictures, 1962: Penny 'fruit machines' at Weston-super-Mare
Advertisement, 1903: The Weston-Super-Mare Grand Pier Company
Related Links
Commentary: piers are central to British seaside resorts
Victorian triumphs which turn to scrap metal
Southend-on-Sea Pier is a sign of hope
Multimedia
In pictures: The Grand Pier on fire
For Anne Magor, offering children’s rides on a horse-drawn fire engine in the shadow of the pier, it was the worst possible start to the season. Mrs Magor’s husband’s family has had the donkey-ride concession since before the last time that the Grand Pier burnt down, on January 13, 1930.

She said: “It couldn’t be more disappointing really. It’s going to have a bad effect on Weston. It’s been a slow start to the season and now we have this at the beginning of the holiday.”

There was a grim benefit from the fire: her fire engine with Fireman Sam written on the sides was full of passengers, some at least of whom might otherwise have been on the pier.

The fire is believed to have broken out in a deep-fat fryer in the pier’s staff canteen in the early hours of yesterday morning. Within minutes the entire wooden structure at the end of the mile-and-a-quarter pier was ablaze, sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from Cardiff on the opposite side of the Bristol Channel, 60 miles (96km) away.

The fire incinerated the new go-kart track, along with the traditional funfair. More than 80 firefighters tackled the blaze but attempts to bring it under control were hampered by the difficult access along the narrow pier and, ironically for a seaside resort, a shortage of water for the pumps.

During the afternoon occasional streams of sparks fell through holes burnt in the wooden decking to land in clouds of steam in the incoming tide as firefighters damped down the smouldering debris.

The Grand Pier opened in 1904 and quickly became Weston-super-Mare’s leading attraction. Older locals still recall the devastating fire of 1930 when children ran beneath the burning pier to gather handfuls of pennies that dropped from melting slot machines.

The remains were bought by Leonard Guy and the pier was completely rebuilt, reopening three years later. Mr Guy sold up in 1946 and the pier did not change hands again until this year, when it was bought for £10 million by Kerry and Michelle Michael, brother and sister entrepreneurs. Weston-super-Mare had been hoping for a bumper season as holidaymakers hit by the credit crunch cancelled plans for foreign trips. Andrew Horler, the town’s Mayor, was among local residents who lined the seafront watching their pier go up in flames. “This is a real blow for Weston. It’s an iconic, beautiful building. The Grand Pier represents Weston.”

The pier is a Grade II listed building and one of only 55 pleasure piers that remain around the country. Local businesses fear that its demise will be a devastating blow for the resort. Keith Fern, president of the Weston Hotel and Restaurant Association and owner of the Saxonia Guest House, said: “We’ve already had two customers walk out and go home this morning. You can imagine how we feel. It feels like the loss of a limb.”

Tim Phillips, chairman of the National Pier Society, was in Weston only a few weeks ago discussing the future of the Grand Pier with Ms Michael. He said: “It is a quirk of piers that they seem to catch fire.”

Kevin Pearson, the chief fire officer of Avon Fire and Rescue Service, said that the fire was believed to have started in a deep-fat fryer in the turret of the main pavilion. No one was injured and a member of staff — Robert Tinker, 60, who has worked on the pier for 43 years — was credited with preventing a worse disaster by helping to drag several gas cylinders out of the way of the flames . Mr Pearson said: “If the other cylinders had exploded they could have caused a significant risk to our firefighters.”

Mr Michael, 49, said last night: “When we purchased the Grand Pier in February we regarded ourselves as custodians rather than owners. For this tragic event to have taken place on our watch is truly devastating. I feel very sorry for our dedicated staff many of whom have been on the pier all their working lives.” Flanked by two dozen employees at an impromtu press conference, he added: “We will work tirelessly to restore this magnificant structure to its former glory.”

 

[shelli]

From the Times online....

With it disappeared the holiday dreams of thousands of visitors who were expected to descend on the town over the coming weeks. To add insult to injury, hail and torrential rain later sent sunbathers scurrying for shelter.

And that tells you everything you need to know about the british - even the end of the world as we know it could be eclipsed by the fact that it rained as well!!

 

[Nemesis]

The pictures of the new pier design have been released:

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=725&storycode=3125500&c=1&encCode=0000000001851c33

Also, BD has news of a new beach cafe at Littlehampton - love all the refs re sash windows!

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=453&storycode=3124582&c=2


Meanwhile, back at Margate, some interesting 19th century relics have been unearthed:

http://www.joylandbooks.com/scenicrailway/


Click on the news story link for pictures.

 

[Nemesis]

A little more good news for seasides:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7681734.stm

 

[shelli]

Is it just me or doesn't that look like a bit of a health and safety risk? toddlers with cracked skulls etc

 

[plumbers mate]

It's not just toddlers falling out of the window, but people like me who would be concentrating on carrying a tray without spilling anything and negotiating the steps - head down and BANG.... straight into the window.
Hope they don't get any sudden squalls of wind - they'll take off.

 

[Nemesis]

Maybe it's OK:

Ben Masterton-Smith 19 October, 2008
I am extremely disappointed with the patronisng comments from the killjoys above. Having been lucky enough to visit the project, its a fantastic piece of quietly sophisticated architecture, with a quirky twist as an intelligent solution to the always unpredictable british weather. The scheme is perfectly safe, as you might be able to see better from the more comprehensive publication of the scheme on the Dezeen site.

 

[shelli]

I've just seen that readers comments section beneath the littlehampton cafe article - sorry, it seems I am a killjoy too and happy to remain so
- as a building to be used by the public it's totally unsuitable - you can fall out of the front of it for goodness sake - people when on holiday are daft enough as it is - don't give them booby trapped cafes!

 

[Nemesis]

http://www.asif-khan.com/

It possibly isn't quite as daft in the reality.

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/10/17/west-beach-cafe-by-asif-khan/