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Fire rips through historic pier

by Dave Keating | July 27, 2008 at 11:31 pm | 440 views | 6 comments | 2 recommendations

Entrance to The Pavillion at the end of Weston's Grand Pier

A major fire is wreaking havoc at the Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare, a seaside town in the UK. The wooden structure dates from 1904, and the fire is sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky visable for miles around.

There are no reports of any injuries. The blaze is believed to have started in the west tower of the pier.

Send in any photos or video you have of the fire or smoke. It can reportedly be seen within a 10 mile radius.

Firefighters were called to a large blaze that swept through the historic pier at the Somerset seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare on Monday, police said.

Flames and thick black smoke engulfed the structure and could be seen from the M5 motorway, several miles from the coast, a fire brigade spokeswoman said.

Television footage showed much of the pier well alight, with smoke billowing high into the sky above the beach.

An Avon Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said there were no reports of any injuries.

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Caoimhin1

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:01 on July 28th, 2008

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff. Great photo also Fiona!

fiona-kelly

at 11:18 on July 28th, 2008

Our 23 month son had a rough night and woke us up several times and after getting up at 3.45am to settle him I was looking forward to having a lie in... At around 7am I became aware of a weird crackling noise & sirens coming from outside. For a while the noise sort of combined with my dreams... but as soon as our power went off in our building and the baby monitor started beeping I was leaping out of bed to see what on earth was going on. As I headed across to the bedroom window I was thinking how strange a time it was for someone to let off so many fireworks... What I saw on opening the shutters had me transfixed in horror... Our Grand Pier was engulfed in flames and smoke. I loved looking at it every day... all the windows in our apartment have views of the pier & it also looked very pretty at night when lit up with it's myriad of green lights that reflected beautifully on the water... that is when the tide was in. It was well after 9am when the flames died down a bit... and then my son woke up pretty much missing it all! Our walks on the beach won't be the same... so many happy memories... such a great shame. All that's left is a hollow burnt out shell... thank goodness there was no one hurt and the wind blew the smoke away from the shore... or we would have been engulfed in smoke for hours.

I have posted more photos of the pier blaze & what it looked like before the fire & what now remains on my blog... http://fionakelly.wordpress.com/

fiona-kelly has contributed a photo to this story.

dobbo_sf

at 08:25 on July 28th, 2008

A terrible shame to see the pier destroyed like this.

I hope it's rebuilt.

dobbo_sf has contributed a photo to this story.

crunchcandy

at 08:40 on July 28th, 2008

I stuck my head out the back door at 8am and saw a huge plume of smoke coming up from the pier. When I reached the beach at about 8.20 the fire had taken hold of the whole of the pavilion structure and pretty much everything was burnt down by just after 9. My sister and her children arrived and both ended up being posed next to donkeys by press photographers in front of the burnt down pier.

I am so sad about this- i'd go so far as to say I am heart broken. I have been 'collecting' piers and 'pier animals' (the fibre glass rides) for several years now and Weston pier was always my favourite, and not just because it's just down the beach from me. I use a lot of imagery from Weston beach in my art and the only positive thing I can think that might come out of this is more inspiration for me.

This afternoon there's been torrential rain and I can't help thinking if only the storm had happened earlier maybe things wouldn't have been so bad.

crunchcandy has contributed a photo to this story.

michelle.sundvick

at 08:56 on July 28th, 2008

Update:

Avon Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was well-developed by the time crews arrived and officers had to battle against "intense radiated heat".

Chief fire officer Kevin Pearson said: "Indications are that there were some deep fat fryers in the area where we believe the fire first started.

"We're fairly clear about where we think the fire first started and obviously our investigations will concentrate on that area."

"The entire pavilion has gone admittedly, and it'll be obviously a huge project to rebuild it, which will take a considerable amount of time.

"I mean, when it burnt down last time, in 1930, it took three years and they probably moved a bit quicker then than we do nowadays."

"The fire brigade have put a wall of water along the walkway between the seafront and the end of the pier.

"Traffic this morning was absolutely chock-a-block.

"When I first saw the fire, to be honest my first thoughts were for the livelihoods of people who work here.

"It's Weston's number one attraction.

"The only piece of good news is that there are no reports of casualties. At least there is something to be thankful for."

Podknox

at 13:25 on July 28th, 2008

This is a photo taken on the last day that Weston super mare's "Grand Pier" was open. The children are taking in the great view of all the people on the beach. I don't think I'd ever seen so many people enjoying the beach like this in a very long time. It was a beautiful day. I heard the news this morning when I was getting in my car to leave Weston for work that the pier was on fire. It's a very sad day for Weston super mare.

Podknox has contributed a photo to this story.