Firefighters lose shop (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Firefighters lose shop

8:49am Wednesday 30th January 2008 in Swindon By Hayley Court

RETAINED firefighters Pete Price and Jason Smith are rebuilding their livelihoods after their workshop went up in flames as they responded to another emergency call.

The part-time crew members from Cricklade Retained Fire And Rescue Service downed tools at their co-owned business Prestige Repairs when the call came in at 10.55am on Friday.

They abandoned the site at The Gallons, in Cricklade, and raced to the fire station to support Swindon fire crews who were already out.

But when the call turned out to be a false alarm, the business partners returned to their workshop to be greeted by a genuine inferno.

Pete, 41, said: "We'd been gone just 15 minutes but when we returned the whole place was just engulfed - we lost everything."

In an ironic twist to the tale the two were then actually called out to the blaze as part of the fire crew.

Jason said: "We heard the address come over the radio and our hearts just sank, we already knew what would be waiting for us - it was crushing."

The pair had been fixing the bearings on a transit van when the original call came in.

As they dropped their tools, a heated piece of equipment rolled onto the floor of the vehicle and slowly smouldered as they left the site.

When they returned minutes later they watched £170,000 worth of equipment going up in smoke.

Jason said: "We were torn because obviously we are faced with fires all the time and react professionally but when it's your own you can't help but be affected."

To make matters worse new dad Jason had just made a down payment on a new home for his family.

The 32-year-old said: "My partner and I have just had a baby and bought a new house so this is the very worst possible time.

"Me and Pete are also the breadwinners of our families so this is very much our livelihood, we can't afford to be out of work for any length of time."

The optimistic pair hope to start building a new workshop on the foundations of the old site today.

Pete also claims it is business as usual as of Monday and has already started booking in work.

He said: "We can't afford to mess about with it, we can't lose any more time, our only problem now is getting our tools back - we've been left with nothing."