Baby product business destroyed in fire

45 firefighters attended a huge fire which ripped through buildings at a Granby Industrial Estate on 5th April.

Baby & Me and JMK Auto Repairs were both damaged in the fire. It is thought that the fire started at Baby and Me UK which sells prams, cots, car seats and baby products.

A spokesperson for Baby and Me said: “It all feels like a bad dream, but we have just got to keep going. Business was booming and internet sales were going really well. We were hoping to open a shop in Weymouth soon. We’ve lost everything. All these piles of stuff were thousands of pounds worth of stock which was only delivered on Thursday morning. It’s going to take some time to build it back up again. We will have to start again somewhere else. I am grateful for everybody’s help and to the fire service for getting it under control. We don’t know how it started at the moment.”

Luke Bennett, owner of JMK Auto Repairs said that he hoped to be running normally again very soon. He said: “I was outside looking at someone’s car when he suddenly said: ‘Look at all that smoke. That’s when I turned and saw it. Our place is okay and we are hoping to start work again on Tuesday. The workshop has not been too badly damaged and from what I can see we should be okay to work next week.”

Mr Bennett added: “We still don’t know why it happened. I don’t know what they’ll do with next door, whether they’ll pull it down or what. We’ve just got a bit of tidying up to do today, but we want customers to know we will be opening.”

Craig Baker from Dorset Fire and Rescue Service’s group manager said: “An investigation has begun into the cause of this fire. This was a very severe fire, which crews managed to get under control by 6.40pm, although they will be remaining on scene for some time yet dampening down.”

Fire crews remained on the scene until Friday afternoon dampening down the area. An investigation in to the cause of the fire will be carried out.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that you:

‘must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to which relevant persons are exposed’

This means that all companies as a first point in their Fire Safety must complete a Fire Risk Assessment.  This must be carried out by a competent person, who is trained to perform risk assessments.