WORTHING PIER BLAZE

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1933, Page 4

WORTHING PIER BLAZE

-— ——_ PAVILION DESTROYED. WORTHING, September 30. '(’he pavilion at the end of Worthing Pier was destroyed by fire within an hour this afternoon. Hundreds of people who were on the pier; at the time fled for their lives as the flames, fanned by a strong breeze, rapidly enveloped the tinder-dry wooden building. So quickly did the' fire spread that about fifty persons who' were having tea. in the restaurant had no knowledge of it until the flames were licking the walls and bursting through the floor. The fire began beneath the flooring at the south-east corner of the pavilion and was first noticed by a visitor, who gave the alarm. An attendant tried to put it out with an extinguisher, but the flames spread rapidly and Worthing and Brighton fire brigades were sent for, while reinforcementsof police were hurried to the pier. Within a few minutes the whole building was ablaze, and a vast cloud of smoke, visible from Littlehampton, and Bognor Regis, in the west, and Brighton, Newhaven. and Seaford in tho east, was being blown out ot. sea. All the people on the pier escaped.

BATHERS FIGHT FLAMES. Realising that there was no hope of saving the Pavilion, the firemen concentrated on preventing the flames from spreading along the pier to the shore. Hundreds of holiday-makers, men and women, some in bathing costumes, were provided with picks and ciowbars and helped the firemen to tear up the wooden planking of the pier in order’ to check the flames. One of the helpers fell 15ft through the gap in the flooring into the sea. He was picked up unhurt by a motorboat. One man drove a motor-car along the pier with a. load of pickaxes, and on his return journey carried furniture from the pavilion. Other holiday makers impounded carts and barrows to carry other furniture to places of safety, and dock chairs from the Pavilion were passed from band to hand along the pier, ’(’he piano was saved, .but other musical instruments were destroyed. Three firemen played hoses on the under-part of tho structure, which was hanging precariously to the stanchions. Within an hour the building was a shell of twisted ironwork and scarred timbers, still smouldering. The. damage is estimated at between ,1)10,000 and £15,000. Thousands of holiday-makers watch- ! cd the fire from the shore, and traffic became sefiously congested until a

number of visitors came to the aid of the police and helped! to direct the cars. 4 f The concert pavilion at the shore - end of the pier was unaffected by the 3 fire, and the usual Sunday night con- ; cert was held there this evening. > The pier was opened in 1862, and ‘ the pavilion was added at a cost of I £12,(100 in 1889. In 11113 the central ’ portion of the pier was carried away ’ in a gale. ! This is tho fifth big pier fire this ! summer, the previous ones being: ■ Maj' 17. —Pier pavilion destroyed ■ and part of pier damaged at Colwyn Bay. ' July 24.—Concert hall on Southport pier burnt out, with 300 yards of the ■ pier itself. July 28.—Theatre at head of Colwyn Bay pier destroyed. Aug. 1. —Morecambe central pier destroyed, with pavilion, ball-room and skating rink. Fires also occurred on Margate and Blackpool piers, but these were put out before much damage had been done. Some of these fires were 1 thought to have been started deliberately and at the beginning of last i month special precautions were taken ' to guard the piers at Llandudno, Rhyl and Blackpool. ;