IT was just a normal Thursday afternoon in Hailsham in June 1992 – but things were about to take a turn of the worse.
The Gateway Superstore stood in the centre of Vicarage Field, where Waitrose is now situated – but it was to be its last as a fire was discovered in the warehouse. The shop was evacuated and fire crews from across the county were about to tackle a huge fire which could be seen from Lewes.
Online records are sketchy and hard to find on this huge fire – but Hailsham News has done some digging – pinpointed the date and spoken with the crews and the people who worked in the shop at the time of the blaze.
Just minutes after the fire was discovered, fire pumps from Hailsham, Eastbourne, Herstmonceux, Lewes and even Burgess Hill were all on the scene with a total of 60 firefighters, and the town centre was on lockdown.
The fire soon spread from the warehouse onto the shop floor completely gutting the building and destroying every single product and fitting in the store.
Water from the swimming pool from what was called The Lagoon Leisure Centre was hosed out to put out the fire. Staff at the centre remembered the time the pool was taken over by crews and hoses laid up the car park to the scene of the fire.
The Hailsham Gazette reported how firefighters were supplied with food and drink from all the town centre shops during the 20 hours they were on scene.
Hailsham resident, Julian Thomas who worked in the store at the time of the fire told Hailsham News: “I remember the phone ringing in the hallway and one of my colleagues told me the shop was on fire. Looking through the living room window, I could see black smoke bellowing up into the sky.
I headed straight up the town and stood watching, in disbelief, with everyone else what was happening in front of us. The sound of things cracking and popping from inside the building, and the smell of burning material is a vivid memory.
I recall at one point when the fire reached the household aisle, aerosol cans started exploding and flying about like missiles inside the shop. Eventually, the large glass windows at the front of the shop gave way and shattered.
It was a very strange feeling going to work the next day. Standing outside the back yard of the shop, all trying to come to terms with the fact that the shop was gone, and slowly realising this was the end of an era for the team of people who worked there. People we’d spent time with nearly every day whilst at work, we’d now only occasionally bump into when shopping up the town.”
The Chinese restaurant above the supermarket escaped and was able to continue trading. A subsequent fire inside the restaurant just a week after the Gateway blaze sealed the fate of the whole building.
Firefighter tells memories of ‘the big one’
Alastair Burton was a firefighter based in Hailsham at the time of the Gateway Fire. Then 24 years old, now 55, he tells Hailsham News about the shout that he still remembers to this day…
“The call was early evening and obviously, we’re retained in Hailsham, so we were the first pump there, and we instantly got two crews with breathing apparatus in straight away. It had started in the storeroom, so at the time, the actual shop was untouched.
Other pumps started to turn up and as more and more crews arrived, we noticed boxes of alcohol in the store room had fallen over so that was actually accelerating the flames.
As the fire grew, we noticed the front window of the shop started to pulsate with the heat, and hundreds of people had come into town to see the fire and were standing almost right next to the store. When we saw the window was about to explode, we got the Police to move everyone all the way back to the main road.
As soon as this happened, aerosols started exploding in the shop and we saw some flying like missiles straight through the window leaving huge holes in it. They were like little bombs going off.
The roof of the storeroom was made out of tar and straw which, as it melted, was again accelerating the fire. We then had to evacuate all the crews from the building as the roof started to collapse.
We were there until the next morning as we damped down and the site had to be secured. It was a really long job and certainly, the biggest fire Hailsham has ever seen.
We were called back to the scene many times over the next few days as people saw puffs of smoke and was thinking it was restarting.
I’ve been to many other large fires around Sussex including the Claremont, but this was for sure the biggest fire we’ve ever attended in Hailsham.
I’m probably the only firefighter that was there that is still working for the service. When I see old colleagues they always mention ‘the big one’ as it has stayed in their memories.”
For more report and photos, see the July edition of Hailsham News here.
