Fire destroys warehouse as owner watches Wembley match
A company has been destroyed in a fire while the owner watched a football match at Wembley Stadium on Saturday evening.
John Charles, who owns AquAid UK in Cambridge received a call from an employee to say that the building was going up in flames.
By the time Mr Charles made it back to the company based in an industrial unit at Dales Manor Business Park, 8 fire crews were at the scene trying to control the flames. It took firefighters around 7 hours to extinguish the blaze.
No one was injured in the fire. Neighbours were told to keep windows and doors shut and to stay indoors if possible.
Mr Charles said: “The unit has been totally gutted by the fire. It’s when you walk inside it that you realise it’s been burned to cinders. The warehouse is our distribution centre and thankfully, there was nobody inside at the time. I was watching the game at Wembley when one of my employees who lives nearby called me to say he could see black smoke billowing from the warehouse. It was a horrible feeling and I couldn’t believe it when I saw the scale of the damage. The fire also spread next door, although it looks like it will be OK.”
Mr Charles remains determined that business will carry on as usual and has found a temporary warehouse from which he can run the business.
An investigation will be carried out to determine the cause of the fire.
M1 motorway fire – arson suspected
A fire investigation has revealed that the M1 scrapyard fire was arson.
The fire started at around 4.15pm on Friday 15th April, in Ellesmere Avenue and resulted in an 11km stretch of the M1 being closed for days.
A spokesperson for the London Fire Brigade has confirmed that their findings have now ‘been handed to the Met for investigation’.
Nobody was injured in the fire but substantial damage was caused and motorists still face severe motorway disruption well into the Easter Weekend.
The Highways Agency has reported that construction work is underway but urges motorists to consider alternative routes to avoid ‘continued congestion’.
Ministers have requested an audit of railways and roads which are at risk of industrial accidents and an investigation will also be carried out into the storage of gas canisters at Apex Metals.
Washing machine fire kills elderly man
An elderly man is thought to have been killed in a matter of seconds after inhaling cyanide when his washing machine went up in flames last year.
John Russell, 80, who lived in Lower Morden is thought to have died after trying to extinguish a washing machine fire in his kitchen on 18th September 2010.
London Fire Brigade reported that Mr Russell’s washing machine was set alight due to an electrical fault and the flames then spread to other nearby flammable materials.
Mr Atkinson from the London Fire Brigade said: “We believe that, at some point, he intervened and probably tried to tackle the fire by shutting the door behind him to keep it confined. Unfortunately that exacerbated the situation for him. He seemed to be an old-school type of gentleman but it would have been better to have left it.”
A verdict of accidental death was found and coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said: “I find that, on the balance of probabilities, it was something as toxic as cyanide that killed him very quickly indeed before he could have been burned. No smoke alarms were fitted but would it have prevented this death? I suspect it would not have done.”
No working smoke alarms in home of fatal fire
A women has died in a fire at her home in Somercotes, Derbyshire.
The women thought to be in her 20’s has not been formally identified but tributes left near the property name the victim as ‘Suzanne’.
Initial findings show that the fire was started by discarded smoking materials and it is thought that the property was not fitted with working smoke alarms.
Fire crews from Alfreton and Ripley were called to the fire at around 4pm on Monday last week and discovered the body of a woman in a bedroom.
A neighbour who spotted the fire said that he had tried to get close to the house but couldn’t due to the amount of smoke coming from the property.
This is the 6th house fire death in Derbyshire this year. The Derby Telegraph and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service are currently running a campaign highlighting the importance of having working smoke alarms in homes.
40 firefighters called to Dyfed blaze
A huge fire broke out at Dyfed Cleaning Services in Milford Haven on Wednesday 13th April.
The fire on St Peters Road broke out at around midnight on Wednesday and was tackled by around 40 firefighters, 6 water tenders, 2 aerial, 2 water carriers and high volume pump and environment units.
Steve Bryant, Incident Commander said: “Our crews worked very hard throughout the night to fight and contain the fire. Both the location of the premises and a nearby Railway Line made access difficult. Crews were at the scene all night and will remain there during the day to ensure the fire is properly extinguished.”
People living in the area were advised that they may need to evacuate their homes but the firefighters managed to bring the fire under control in time.
An investigation will be carried out to determine the cause of the blaze.