Fleetwood Pier Fire!

Subject: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:52 AM

Not quite the loss of Weston, and not as nice a day for it either, but I've just been out for a look & it's still pretty impressive with an angular pall of smoke going off across Morecambe Bay driven by an atypical off-shore wind.

Fylde punters will know Fleetwood Pier as the derelict eye-sore it most surely is, currently at the heart of a planning war; we locals, of course, love it to bits. One can only hope that this episode might hasten some sort of solution to the issue, and that the current conflagration does not in any way compromise the essential structure of the thing.

Anyway, here's one of my pictures from ten minutes ago:

Fleetwood Pier Fire - 9-9-08

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:58 AM

Don't blame me, I was asleep at 0430!   Ron

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:00 AM

Oops - wrong pic. Try this:

Fleetwood Pier Fire

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:02 AM

Just heard the Stena ro-ro horn! I want a picture of the Pioneer sailing through the smoke but I'm soaked through from my earlier jaunt! Why can't we have a nice sunny day for our pier fire like Weston?

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:12 AM

I haven't been to Fleetwood Pier for over 40 years (used to work in Preston), and vaguely remember it as nothing special. Is it going to go the way of Brighton's poor old West Pier - total inaction for years then, just when some action was under way to restore it, up it went in smoke. It's now just a derelict collection of (impressive) iron girders.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:18 AM

Funny the way awkward piers catch fire- Brighton, notably, and this. You'd think that out in the middle of the sea in the wettest weather since thr Flood, they'd be relatively safe.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:20 AM

Brighton's pier was torched - twice - on purpose. The arsonists went out in a boat and did the deed on purpose with fuel.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:26 AM

Mobile phone footage of Fleetwood Pier
here.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: romany man
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:31 AM

its sad, any pier going up in flames is a loss , but the owners never seem to look after them and i find i highly suspicious that they remain insured and the owner get loadsa money, perhaps its just me

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Schantieman
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:34 AM

"The blaze is believed to have started near the front of the pier, by a former pub and cafe. "

Why blame the buildings?   Maybe they had a g-rudge.....?

(garage....geddit?.......I'll get my mac)

Steve

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:36 AM

That was exactly the rumour that was going around when Morecambe's Central Pier and ballroom went up in smoke many years ago.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 05:41 AM

The arsonist must have been pretty dedicated in this weather.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 06:28 AM

The fire would appear to be to the pier buildings which were due for demolition anyway; a very timely demotion I might add, and welcome too, being a rotten eye-sore for way too long. The question remains as to their replacement - see Here for the full story.

To what extent the fire has in any way compromised the concrete & iron pier itself remains to be seen, but she's a tough old lady is Fleetwood Pier, and the beauty of the thing was certainly not the buildings which won't be any great miss.

See Here for a picture I took during our constitutional on Sunday.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 07:57 AM

I hear that it has already be burned down once - about 55 years ago.

I didn't realise what the smoke was as I drove to work until it was too late to make a detour to view it, and I didn't have a camera.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 10:07 AM

The Landlord I was talking to said, theres a bloke just bought that pier. I don't know what he's got in mind for it, but I can't see him making a go of that.......

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 10:38 AM

The pier is currently in the hands of Mike Simmons - aka Blackpool comedian Joey Blower - who has proposed to build luxury flats on it. There is, as you might imagine, a lot of opposition to this plan, but you can read his position here. Hopefully the fire won't have effected the actual pier itself, rather the buildings which were a derelict eyesore - as I say I think most will be glad to see the back of them. Personally, I think the council should buy it back and incorporate it into the promenade walk, without buildings which just detract from the raw concrete & iron substance of the thing. Not pretty I grant, but real in a way that few things are in these post-modern times.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 01:54 PM

Perhaps, Joey Blower's efforts will develop into a "Pier of the Realm."

Good luck, lads, and may the arsonist get singed.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 03:21 AM

looking at the firefighters' jet - that one huge peer.

I'll get my so'wester...........

Subject: Fleetwood Pier
From: le cheffie
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 04:35 AM

Now that the structures on the pier have burned down, does this mean that when its rebuilt Alan Bell may have a new venue to use for Fylde

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier
From: folk1e
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 04:40 PM

And the owner had no insurance! Chances of a rebuild must be low.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: folk1e
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 05:05 PM

There would seem to be some discrepancy in the existence of insurance.
The link above dated August said insurance was there "31, 000 square feet of space, full insurance about £35, 000", but on interview (TV) Joey Blower said it had NO insurance.

Interesting times!

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier
From: GUEST,aeola
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 06:56 AM

an apartment block, odds on!

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier
From: Bernard
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 11:36 AM

I'd guess the fire was cheaper than the scheduled demolition of the buildings in question... or am I being cynical?!

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Folkiedave
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 12:42 PM

I think he was saying that IF it was insured - that was what it would cost.

Round here in Sheffield they set fire to businesses when they are not sure if a flood will do enough damages.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: goatfell
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 09:05 AM

I know it's sad when that happens but it is just a pier, lucky we here in Scotland and Northern Ireland we don't have peirs, and these were built because the tight fisted English and Welsh, found out that a theatre that was built away from the road you didn't need to pay tax, and you say that us Scots are mean, a Yorkshire baby's first words are 'how much?!'

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: GUEST,Swan Vesta
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 05:25 AM

It appears they have other plans...........

http://fleetwood-pier.com/

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 01:08 PM

All gone now bar bits of reinforced concrete in the sand waiting to tear the leg open of some hapless nipper. Here's a picture taken a couple of weeks before the blaze: Fleetwood Pier - 24-8-08

And one of the taken during demolition: Pier Demon

And one taken on Christmas Day last year: Xmas Sunset

And whilst I'm on, one of my favourite bits of old sea-side architecture on The Fylde: Old Steamboat Jetty, St. Annes

Subject: RE: Fleetwood Pier Fire!
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 01:46 PM

Great pix, IB! Sad to see, but beautiful photos.