On Saturday the 13th June 2015 a discarded cigarette butt once again almost resulted in the loss of our town pier. Hearing the sound of the Fire Engine sirens on Marine Parade, Harry Willis our Youth Mayor, picked up his camera and ran to the scene.
Below is Harry’s account of the event and his plea for all residents of the borough to work together to ensure an incident like this never happens again in the future.
The fire scare that we had recently on Worthing pier could have had a very different outcome! It could have been catastrophic to one of Worthing’s focal points. So I rushed to the pier to see what was going on and how much damage this cigarette had caused.
It shows how our pier still needs to be respected or history could repeat itself ( thinking of the fire of 1933 which was also started by the careless discarding of a lighted cigarette) We must not take our pier for granted and discard cigarettes on this precious wooden structure for obvious reasons.
If it wasn’t for the splendid reaction from the emergency services we could have lost one of Worthing’s focal points and that would have been the end of this project for a start, as well as destroying all the personal connections our Worthing residents have with our pier.
Throughout Worthing’s history the pier has been vulnerable to the elements those natural and those caused by us, and nowadays is no exception.
We must all unite together to protect/sustain our pier and make sure it is preserved, for the future.
We really owe our greatest thanks to the emergency services!
Harry Willis – Worthing and Adur Borough Council Youth Mayor
All photographs provided by Harry Willis – Worthing & Adur Borough Council Youth Mayor
