Well-meaning British Waterways staff, who were cutting back overgrown trees and bushes along a canal towpath in Pype Hayes (Birmingham, UK), inadvertently revealed fencing through which could be seen a factory yard full of flammable material. Given that this site was next to a canal bridge under which local yobs regularly met, it was inevitable that something would happened. It did, on Saturday 19th June 2004.
I happened to be around to witness this event, armed with my old Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera and a box of matches ....err ... only joking folks. The dense acrid smoke, visible for miles, caused the closure of a section of one of Britain's busiest roads (the A38) and, as it drifted across the road, the evacuation of customers in the Showcase Cinema opposite - which was a great pity, because the film showing that evening was a 3D version of "The Towering Inferno". As one customer remarked, the special effects in the film were so incredibly real, that one could literally smell the burning.
Thankfully the company survived, and its own website includes details about the aftermath to this incident.
Six years previously, on the opposite side of the canal, and a mere 60-70 yards away from this site, a huge warehouse was also similarly destroyed by an allegedly 10-year-old boy - presumably called Callum, Kyle or Jordan, or some other, equally moronic, name.
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Categories & Keywords
Category:City Scenes
Subcategory:Crowds
Subcategory Detail:
Keywords:arson, factory, factory, fire, fire, moron, pype hayes
