Saturday, June 01, 2013

The Great Little Bowden Allotment Fire of 2013


I was just drifting off to sleep last night when my bedroom was filled with flashing lights and the sound of engines.

Opening the curtains, I saw there was a fire tender in the road outside. Not only that: there were flames leaping up spectacularly from somewhere across the road.

Soon a second tender turned up and I went for a walk to see exactly where the flames were coming from. It turned out to be the allotments between the houses across the road and Little Bowden rec and by the time I got home the flames had been doused.

The fire brigade stayed for an hour or so to make sure everything was in order and then drove off into the night.

This morning I went to have a look at the site of the fire, but there was surprisingly little to see. But it has made the Leicester Mercury:
A fire service spokesman said: 
"We had a number of calls from residents who saw the fires. 
"Three sheds suffered 85 per cent damage and the three panels suffered 90 per cent damage." He said eight conifer trees were also damaged. 
The spokesman added: "The cause of the fires was deliberate."
I look forward to a "my fire hell" post by Backwatersman.

2 comments:

Simon Titley said...

How does one calculate that a shed is precisely 85 per cent damaged?

Simon Titley said...

A further thought: If a large number of allotment sheds were reduced to ashes, would you have Fifty Sheds of Grey?