Weston-super-Mare pier?

Question

Sad to see the pictures of it being burned down and a hope they rebuild it, thank goodness no lives were lost., but I was a bit surprised that the cause of the fire was supposed to be a chip pan fire?

This would suggest that instead of cooking chips in a thermostatically controlled fryer, chips were being cooked in a pan that unattended, would heat the fat beyond it’s flash point, and that despite a £5 million refit, no smoke detectors or water sprinklers were installed/working ???

Answer 1

I would quite like it to be rebuilt with a modernist building rather than yet another Edwardian pastiche.  Remember that the British piers were founded when we still had steamships sailing around our coasts as a valid means of transport as opposed to everything by road or air.  I read Thomas Hardy's early novel 'A Pair of Blue Eyes' recently and was amazed to learn that in the mid-Victorian times the railways were not seen as economical or safe, and inter-coastal steamship routes were still operating, and were seen as a preferred option for budget transport for people between London and the West Country.

Answer 2

a chip pan fire??i was waiting to hear what the cause was and i didn't hear... how strange :s what a horrible thing to have happened though :(

Answer 3

i was so upset about that - i spend a great deal of my childhood on Weston pier.  I took my son there at Easter and he loved it.  Weston IS the pier.

It seems very irresponsible to leave a pan unattended, but have been going all night do you think?

Answer 4

The problem with water sprinkler systems is that they are not a lot of good where hot frying fat is concerned.  Pour cold water on blazing hot burning fat and you get an explosion which just makes the situation worse.

Far better in fact to ban all chip frying on piers - in fact why have any cooking on piers?

The previous owner of the pier in a TV interview [news] said there was no sprinkler system when he owned it.

The pier had a blaze back in the 1930s and the pier was back up and running within a year and the entire original top of the pier was replaced and working within three years.

The present owners of the Weston pier have made it clear that they are going to restore the pier to it's original condition and I believe they will - it's their livelihood and I think there are about 100+ staff willing to do all they can to help keep the business going.

Hope so, beause as one local resident said, without the pier, there's nothing in Weston-s-m.

Answer 5

Who was cooking chips at 7am?

Answer 6

smoke detectors no sprinklers yes and no not cooking from a domestic chip pan they industrial fryers they had and a thermostat could go faulty anytime so think again,!!

Answer 7

does seem a bit suspect, especially after a major refit. Though i guess you can't cover everything. And besides these old piers have a tendency to burn quite quickly, most are made of wood. Shame though all the same

Answer 8

nothing has been confirmed yet as to why the pier burned down. speculations of a chip fryer being the cause is because it is believed the fire started in the area where food is cooked.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/wdp/news/...

Answer 9

looks like an insurance job to me!

Answer 10

I bet there's plenty of charcoal for the BBQ going free.

Answer 11

It all seems very strange. A chip pan is only one theory, would anyone be cooking chips that early in the morning?  and they've yet to rule out arson.