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Fire puts play centre out of action

From the archive, first published Friday 19th Mar 2004.

Hundreds of children were left disappointed after fire damaged a play centre.

Dozens of parties had to be cancelled this week at Serendipity Sam's in Greatbridge Road at Romsey.

The building caught fire at around 8.30pm on Saturday.

Area manager, Rob Hibberd, said: "There were some birthday groups just leaving at the time. There were approximately 20 to 25 people in the building and five staff, who were evacuated when the fire alarm sounded."

Crews from Romsey and Eastleigh fire stations took around an hour to extinguish the blaze. Nobody was hurt during the drama.

The fire, which is being blamed on an electrical fault, severely damaged first floor offices, burning paperwork and wrecking computers.

Some of the party areas on the ground floor suffered water damage while the heat of the fire destroyed several windows.

Power was also lost and frozen food valued at £1,500 had to be thrown away.

The outside of the building suffered smoke damage and the company is trying to clean away the scorch marks.

Mr Hibberd says the building is still structurally sound and their insurers are trying to estimate the cost of the damage.

Speaking earlier this week, he said: "We're going to do everything possible to get open by the end of the week so we don't disappoint the children booked in for parties."

However, by Wednesday it became clear the clean-up job would take longer.

Fire and smoke damage will mean repair work to the offices and deep cleaning of the whole play structure, and is expected to take a few weeks to complete.

Some parents, who booked parties at Romsey this week, have been forced to change their plans.

"We turned around 100 people away yesterday (Sunday) and around 40 people today," said Mr Hibberd.

Since the fire, Rob and his teams have frantically been contacting people who have booked parties at the centre in the next few weeks and have arranged to hold the celebrations at one of the other local Serendipity Sam's at Whitchurch, near Andover, or at Christchurch instead.

Currently only parties in March and early April are expected to be affected.

The company began trading in 2000 and notched up its fourth year in business yesterday (Thursday).

"We have got plans to expand, but this may well set us back a bit," said Mr Hibberd. For details of party arrangements in March and April call 0845 4507200.

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