O/T Westgate Fire

[Posh]

Apparently the chicken factory on Westgate went on fire last night and has been completely destroyed. Apart from the loss of jobs the smell must have been pretty horrendous. Westgate shut from Shrimp roundabout down to Lidl.

[Loyalsupporter]

Just heard about this on the radio, apparantly it has taken 18 fire engines to get the fire under control throughout last night.

[Posh]

Update: http://www.lep.co.uk/news/Hundreds-flee ... 5298611.jp

[Heysham_Shrimp]

I was awoken from my sleep on Twemlow Parade in Heysham at 4-20 this morning by the Police Helecopter hovering overhead with a tannoy asking people to close their windows and turn off air conditioning.
I thought the Power Station had gone up !

[Little Shrimp]

Good thing there's a fire station in Westgate.

[Gnasher]

Bright and loud enough to wake residents of christie ave at 4am who say the flames were massive and intense.

[-Hatrick-]

My nosey Nana got dressed at half 2 this morning and walked round with a flask to see what was going on

[scalehallshrimp]

plenty of roast chicken going cheep then

[mainstand]

i was one of them evacuated come out we got told to go to the elms hotel in bare then transferred us to salt ayre where we were told we could go home 4 hours after we had come out

[Gnasher]

Westgate is still closed but only from the shrimp roundabout to White Lund Road. Do-It-All is inside the closed stretch of road so car park closed but the store is open, park on Westgate and walk to it.

[Mike Blackstone]

Westgate is still closed but only from the shrimp roundabout to White Lund Road. Do-It-All is inside the closed stretch of road so car park closed but the store is open, park on Westgate and walk to it.

Are they giving free fried chicken for every purchase?

[Sammy h]

Obviously not a joking matter, as alot of people have or will lose their jobs over this.

Not so good if you was on a night out last night and couldn't get a taxi to westgate

I thought the helicopter was chasing me at one point!

[Gnasher]

Obviously not a joking matter, as alot of people have or will lose their jobs over this.
Very possible unless they have a good insurance policy and don't just shift production to another factory.

[George Dawes]

Obviously not a joking matter, as alot of people have or will lose their jobs over this.
Very possible unless they have a good insurance policy and don't just shift production to another factory.

wonder what the cause was? arson? could it have been a unhappy sacked worker

[John L]

wonder what the cause was? arson? could it have been a unhappy sacked worker

Maybe someone left the oven on?

[Pandalus Paddockus]

Feel bad for anyone who lost their job and their income but the stench from that place will not be missed in my garden this summer I can assure you.

[heysham_mfc]

only just found out lol

[billybonz]

I suspect fowl play

[George Dawes]

Maybe someone left the oven on?

accidentally on purpose after being given his/her marching orders

[Mighty Red]

I hope no chickens got hurt!

[Splodge]

Camera footage here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lanc ... 066815.stm

[Curly]

Obviously not a joking matter, as alot of people have or will lose their jobs over this.
Very possible unless they have a good insurance policy and don't just shift production to another factory.

Didn't the company "Tulip" recently close its other main factory, think somewhere in north east or liverpool, can't remember.
Doubt workers will have anywhere to transfer to and they used agency staff too, so not sure
they would want to go, can't of been earning much.

[morecambe mick]

Tulip do not own this factory on Westgate Curly.

It's a firm called 2 sisters.

I phoned my mate at Tulip to ask, yesterday morning.

(When told about the fire, he didn't seem shocked at all. )

[Posh]

It employed 200 people. Bearing in mind that's more than were employed at the Reebok warehouse it means a horrendous loss of jobs and another big impact on the Morecambe economy.

Sorry to bring up politics but this is where local politicians really matter. The City and County Council plus councillors from Westgate and across Morecambe and Lancaster should be meeting this week with 2 Sisters management to work out what they can do to help get the factory rebuilt. To me the loss of 200 jobs (roughly £3 million a year of salaries and taxes lost from the local economy) is far more important than the loss of the The Dome. However when Reebok were considering leaving they were never visited by council officials or councillors, except to ask for a £120K a year rent increase.

[marky No.1]

To me the loss of 200 jobs (roughly £3 million a year of salaries and taxes lost from the local economy) is far more important than the loss of the The Dome.

Agree with that but in this instance I would suspect a large proportion of the "income" was sent back home!