I've been watching this on the news. By the peak of the fire they were over 80 firemen and 11 tenders at the scene. The fire chief said that even by then all they were really doing was damping down. His current theory (about 10am) was that a fat frier in one of the food outlets set on fire and that possibly the ensuing confligration was caused by gas cannisters and other flammables going up.

It'll be a while before they can actually get on site and see what the total damage is. The man from the council was hopeful that the pier's actual superstructure would not be affected and that it would be a matter of re-building the platform and arcades.

All in all, quite dreadful.