Lunchtime on Saturday (February 20) in the High Street was even more chaotic than usual – heavy smoke was clearing from a chimney fire at The Marlborough.
It was pouring with rain, finding a parking place had become some sort of game of chicken and two fire tenders were parked at the bottom of Hyde Lane – which was closed to traffic.
There is, of course, no smoke without fire – and there was a lot of smoke until the high winds dispersed it. At one time fire crews were at the scene from Swindon, Stratton and Reading – including an aerial hoist.
The fire was quickly put out, but making sure the wind did not whip the flames up again, the tenders stood by for a long time. There were no injuries.
Why had such a fire needed so many tenders? “We always send at least two tenders to a fire of this sort in an old and historic building – just in case.” And he had come from Swindon.
He looked hard at the offending chimney and decided he had attended a fire in the same chimney a few years earlier. He was right. In January 2013 fire tenders were called to The Sun (as it then was) for a chimney fire. And that had been their second visit to the pub in a fortnight.
Half-an-hour before crews were called to Marlborough High Street, Marlborough’s fire crew had been sent to a chimney fire in Milton Lilbourne – this was successfully extinguished with chimney rods and a stirrup pump.
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