Fire devastates town timber mill, but boss says ‘we’ll be back’
SIX FIRE ENGINES TACKLE BLAZE IN EARLY HOURS
A FIRE ripped through a timber mill owned by one of Grimsby’s longeststanding firms on Saturday morning.
Bennetts Timber, which has been in business for more than 200 years, has now been forced to shut down its Grimsby operation for repairs.
Today, however, managers pledged to come back “bigger and better”.
A number of fire engines were called to the blaze in the early hours of the morning.
The mill was badly damaged and will have to be rebuilt, but other buildings were saved.
This morning, customers were being turned away at the door of the site on South Humberside Industrial Estate as the business began picking up the pieces.
It will be closed until tomorrow for repairs and to drain the water used to douse the flames.
Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph, co-director Edward Bennett said: “It was quite a shock. I was alerted to the fire by my brother Robert this morning at around 8am.
“Apparently someone had seen the fire and told our operations manager that the mill was alight.
“Thankfully, all the offices, the yard and the warehouse have been saved and we’ll look to open up again on Tuesday.
“Obviously the milling facility will be out of action until further notice as it will need to be rebuilt.”
It was too early to determine what caused the fire, Edward said.
He added: “We’ve no idea what could’ve caused this. We’ve faced a lot of adversity in the past and we hope to grow bigger and better fol
Thankfully, all the offices, the yard and the warehouse have been saved and we’ll look to open up again on Tuesday.
lowing on from this.
“At the end of the day, it’s happened and we can’t change that fact.”
The business has a second depot, in Brigg, which remains open. Edward said: “It’s all about how we go forward from here.
“Our Brigg depot will still be open taking calls, as we don’t have the facilities here with no IT or power at the minute.”
One witness told the Grimsby Telegraph that they had seem the flames at 2am. They added: “I saw the smoke and fire engines, it was windy too so the fire was well established at this point.”
In a statement, Humberside Fire and Rescue said: “We were called to the fire at around 1.45am and initially had six fire engines at the scene as well as our aerial ladder. We eventually left the scene at around 8am.”
Edward Bennett