BLAZE DESTROYS £3M WORTH OF CLASSICS
200 cars damaged – including Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Astons
A vehicle restoration business is hoping to rebuild itself from the ashes after its entire premises were obliterated overnight in a massive fire.
Alex and Faye Morse escaped the flames with their three children after their 14-year-old son Bono alerted them to the fire.
Norfolk-based A and F Classics lost at least £3 million worth of vehicles in the blaze, which they believe was caused by a faulty electric meter.
There were no injuries, but the list of damage makes for grim reading. The fire devastated the family’s bungalow, as well as the premises of the company, which can trace its origins back to the 1960s.
‘ We lost the buildings, the cars, the tools, the home we lived in – everything,’ Alex Morse tells CCW. ‘ We had Panhard Levassors, a Rolls-Royce Phantom I, Rolls-Royce Twenty, Maserati 3500 GT, Maserati Indy, two 1959 Mercedes 190SLs, even a 1935 Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire that belonged to former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.’
In a painful stroke of irony, only weeks before the blaze the business had returned a newly-restored 1939 Dennis Murray fire engine to one of its customers. The family now hopes to rebuild A and F Classics in its original location near Dereham and hold on to its two employees. ‘ We just don’t know what’s going to happen at the moment,’ says Mr Morse. ‘My priority is to sort my family out with somewhere to live, then we’ll level the site and hopefully put a new building up. We certainly hope to keep the same customers as before.’
A police spokesperson says: ‘Firefighters managed to save the family’s 10 dogs and are still trying to determine the root of the fire.’
A crowdfunding page has been set up with the aim of raising £20,000 to help the family. If you’re interested in contributing, visit tinyurl.com/a-fclassics
‘ We lost the cars, the buildings, the tools, the home we lived in – everything’ ALEX MORSE OF A AND F CLASSICS