Campaigners have vowed to continue their fight to restore the Victorian pier in Hastings after a suspected arson attack yesterday left its buildings almost totally destroyed.
East Sussex police arrested two men aged 18 and 19 on suspicion of causing the blaze, which started at around 1am. At the height of the fire 50 firefighters and two RNLI lifeboat crews battled to save the Grade II-listed pier, which has been closed since 2006. Dozens of amateur videos showed the pier engulfed in flames several metres high.
Footage from one of the firefighters' ladders, which was filmed from 2.20am, showed the blaze spreading from the back of the pier. The fire was eventually brought under control at around 8am, by which time 95% of the pier's buildings were reduced to smouldering ruins. No one was injured. East Sussex fire and rescue service warned residents to keep doors and windows closed as thick plumes of smoke hovered over the town.
Conservationists hope that much of the building's ironwork has survived. Just hours before the fire, the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust had invited architects to submit designs to redevelop the attraction. It was hoping to secure community ownership of the pier, after persuading Hastings council to use compulsory purchase powers to buy the attraction from its offshore owners.
Anthony Wills, from the National Piers Society, said: "All is not lost for Hastings. It will take more than two kids with a box of matches to destroy Hastings pier. It has lasted since 1872 and it has been through plenty of crises before".
Wills said the £50m rebuilding of the Grand pier at Weston-super-Mare, following a similar fire in 2008, provided hope to campaigners in Hastings.
The Guardian
