I’ve such a heavy heart…
An hour or so ago, Simon and I watched from our office windows, as devastating flames from our wonderful little Scott Cinema in Lyme Regis shot up into the sky.
The noise preceding the alert was most confusing and deeply sinister, it sounded as though gunshots were firing out, then from our windows we could see a mass of orange flames lighting up through billowing smoke and a handful of minutes later, the roof collapsed in on itself with a gargantuan crash.
About half an hour later, the sky turned jet black as the fire clearly reached a material that it got a solid grip on, Simon thought perhaps the chairs maybe. That continued for 15 minutes or more.
A water truck arrived about 1/2 an hour ago and the firefighters had previously sourced water from half way up the hill. At 3.15pm there are still a handful of fire appliances in attendance and the police have closed the top of the road by Silver Street. Not sure if that’s going to be clear for the kids to get home from school… probably not thinking about it.
Our lovely local journalist and photographer Chezzie was on the scene and reassured us, saying she believed nobody was hurt, but that wasn’t confirmed. I certainly hope that is, and remains, the case.
I guess that’s the only thing that matters in the big scheme of things, however, an iconic piece of historical Lyme is being washed away down Broad Street and all the residents and friends we saw out on the street agree. Many were tearful, silent and completely shocked and choked.
The acrid smell of the fire has been blown up the hill and away from us on the mid and lower end. Our friend Chloe in lower Silver Street says her throat and chest feels tight and you can taste it in your mouth – things are far worse up hill of course and smoke has been seen still billowing at the back. I imagine it will be so for a while yet – that was a huge building.
Thank you to Virgil and our amazing firefighters for doing their job and protecting life and goodbye to the only cinema I’ve ever known to serve you tea and coffee in a proper china cup …
Deeply sad… x
Tracey West
