East Peckham homes threatened by pub blaze
TERRIFIED residents feared they would lose their homes when a historic pub burst into flames at the weekend.
The fire, which has been blamed on faulty wiring, gutted the disused Rose and Crown in Branbridges Road, East Peckham, on Saturday night.
-
The Rose and Crown pub in East Peckham on Monday morning after a fire on Saturday night. SL0103101/3
-
The Rose and Crown pub in East Peckham on Monday morning after a fire on Saturday night. SL0103101/6
-
Firefighters battle a blaze at the Rose and Crown pub in East Peckham on Saturday February 27, 2010. PLEASE CREDIT ROLEY ATKINS.
-
NIGHT OF TERROR: The Rose and Crown, which has been shut since last year, was extensively damaged in an electrical fire Roley Atkins
-
Firefighters battle a blaze at the Rose and Crown pub in East Peckham on Saturday February 27, 2010. Picture by Roley Atkins.
-
Crews from Paddock Wood, Matfield and Tonbridge fire stations spent five hours battling the blaze after the alarm was raised at 9.30pm by Old Road residents Valerie Holmes and Chris Butcher.
Mrs Holmes said: "We were sitting in the front room and Chris smelled smoke.
"We opened the window and the smoke started coming in."
Mr Butcher alerted his neighbour, Gordon Bryant, whose house stands a mere 15ft from the rear of the pub.
With the fire brigade yet to arrive, Mr Bryant sprayed water onto the building from a hosepipe in his back garden in a bid to protect his property.
He said: "It was too close for comfort – I've got a shed, a caravan down the side and two cars here and I was frightened about it spreading across this way.
"There was a lot of smoke and it choked you. I was very worried."
Mrs Holmes added: "At first we could only see smoke but then the flames came up through the roof. I thought I was going to lose my house – I was more worried about that than anything else. I wasn't very happy for a couple of hours."
The 18th-century listed building, which has been boarded up since closing before Christmas, was severely damaged in the incident which saw 70 per cent of the roof and 30 per cent of the first floor destroyed.
A turntable ladder was sent from Maidstone to enable firefighters to remove roof tiles and spray water into the structure from above, while engineers were called in to deal with a ruptured gas pipe.
It took just under two hours to bring the fire under control with officers finally able to leave the scene at around 3am.
A Kent Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said officers initially considered the blaze suspicious, but an investigation found an electrical fault in the roof space to be the source of ignition.
A spokesman for pub owners Enterprise Inns refused to comment on the incident.
6 Comments
View all
by Jock, Paddock Wood
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 12:58PM
“I completely agree with John Spinach. This blanket ban on smoking is a big mistake. It should of been a choice of the publican/brewery. By all means enforce strict guideless and air quality rules so that whinging self righteous non smokers are kept happy and away from the evil smoking minority.
I also believe that our pubs have now been ruined. Thanks to the smoking ban this has sent a green light to every lazy selfish parent to bring their kids into a pub and turn the place into a creche. Because they wanted kids, but didnt want to sacrifice a bit of their social life. (or couldnt be bothered to fork out for a baby sitter).
No wonder we are losing so many great pubs and an alarming rate. It saddens me to think that it wont be long before the only pubs left are gastro-pubs, harvesters or horrid chain pubs.
All the small decent adult pubs where you go to have a drink and a chat (and a fag even) with other adults, without having to mind your language incase there are some children in there, will be a thing of the past very soon.”
by John Spinach, Lamberhurst
Monday, March 08 2010, 5:18PM
“As with most anti-smokers, "non-smoker" from Paddock Wood is so blinded by hatred of smokers they did not bother to read what was written.
I said "permit pubs to allow smoking again". I did not say "force pubs to allow smoking again".
So pubs could choose to allow it or not and customers could choose whether they frequented smoking pubs or not. In other words I believe being being given a choice is better thanbeing forced by a nanny state or ranting do-gooders.
Anyway - the point I was making was that the smoking ban has without doubt, caused hundreds of UK pub closures. AmdI think it prety likely this has at least contributed to the spate of pub fires!!!”
by Non Smoker, Paddock Wood
Monday, March 08 2010, 3:49PM
“Non smokers already have to put up with walking behind smokers in the street who are blowing smoke pretty much in your face. You may well want to dirty your lungs with this, but not all of us do! Does that mean non smokers shouldn't go to the pub to socialise?”
by John Spinach, Lamberhurst
Monday, March 08 2010, 11:00AM
“Ironic is it not that these empty pubs have all been spontaneously bursting into flames since the introduction of the UK smoking ban?
It seems that this ban has directly contributed to the closing of 30 - 40 pubs nationally each week because they have ceased to be economically viable. These empty pubs seem to have become especially prone to "electrical" fires leading to huge insurance claims. Lucky for the owners that this happens or they would be seriously out of pocket and often unable to sell these plots of land for redevelopment.
I think there are two ways we might address this problem:
a) make it a legal requirement that these buildings have no electricity supplied to them when they are abandoned.
b) Permit pubs to allow smoking again and let the customers decide whether or not they wan to to go there.
Simple.”
by Jock, Paddock Wood
Monday, March 08 2010, 10:39AM
“Yes, yes there does.”