Arson probe as hotel goes up in flames

Bexhill's biggest blaze in years was also the fourth arson in quick succession and the sixth in two years, confirming the public's worst fears - Bexhill has a serious and potentially lethal problem.

Police have been called constantly to the derelict hotel where children have been piling mattresses in the stairways and lighting fires in the bedrooms.

Investigators say there were five or six seats of fire. An arson probe was immediately begun by police and the fire brigade and in the face of an acknowledged arson problem the fire brigade has launched an advice service for worried traders.

The Observer had contacted owner Derek Smith only a fortnight ago to warn him that the electricity had been left on when the hotel closed just before Christmas 2000 and that lights could be seen in the building every night. This week both he and Rother council were facing a decision (see 4) on the building's future.

Seventy firefighters from as far away as Seaford and Heathfield and hampered by poor water pressure and boarded windows struggled to contain Friday night's inferno to the century-old building itself. East Sussex Fire Brigade's Assistant Chief Fire Officer, George Hammond, took personal charge of the battle.

Children were seen running from the Grade Two Listed Edwardian building shortly before fire was reported at 10.30 last Friday night.

The blaze spread swiftly. Bexhill fire crews were already fully committed along with Hastings and Battle colleagues at Sedlescombe where a total of eight pumps were fighting a blaze which destroyed a thatched cottage. By the time the first crews began to arrive in Sea Road - from Newhaven and Heathfield - flames were leaping through the roof. Firefighters sent into the building after a report that people might be trapped inside were quickly recalled because of fears that blazing floors would collapse on them.

As word spread and police held back fast-growing crowds, bystanders could see greedy flames devouring 101 years of Bexhill history. The Grand - formerly the Granville - boasted in its prime a large dining room with a ballroom beneath. It had been the scene of some of the most elegant social occasions on the Bexhill calendar.

Smoke belched from the front doors and down the stone steps on Friday night as firefighters jetted thousands of gallons on water onto the blaze.

Police and firefighters evacuated residents from surrounding properties. The Vicar and parishioners opened St Barnabas' Church to accommodate them and carried tray after tray of tea to the toiling firefighters (see 5.) The landlord of the Sovereign bar brought out soft drinks.

By now ravenous, the fire could be seen spreading rapidly along the roof.

Distinctive timber-framed dormer windows were devoured one by one and, as if tired, flopped back into the inferno.

In turn, the two distinctive cupolas on the corners of the Grand's facade fell victim - bursting suddenly into incandescent lanterns. For firefighters, the turning-point was the arrival of three aerial ladders.

Powerful monitors on the top of these turntable ladders turned them into water towers capable of directing vast quantities of water down into what was by now an open maw of flame.

Firefighters helped the owner salvage paintings from the adjoining Brown's Gallery in Sea Road as a precaution. But fire crews from half the county were beginning to win. By dawn intense fires were still burning deep inside the building.

The worst was over.

But the Grand, symbol of Bexhill's Edwardian conservation area, was a gutted shell.

Police are keen to speak to a man in his late teens or early 20s with a distinctive Gareth Gates-style spikey haircut. A man fitting this description was seen in Jameson Road at the rear of the Grand Hotel shortly before the fire.

Anyone with information about the fire can contact Bexhill Police on 0845 6070999 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.