Major fire on the Scenic Railway 7th Apr. Suspected arson.

[EAS]

I believe the owners contacted Nick yesterday evening to express regret.

It's early days yet...

[miniman]

Hi miniman

[cliffc]

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:13 pm Post subject: My Input

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Hi All

Without coming to ay conclusions about the firestarter assuming that arson is found to be the cause of this blaze.

By now if i was working in the local CID and seeing that in recent times busisness belonging to the same owner (any owner) were involved in suspious fires this would set the alarm bells ringing and i would be pressing my supriors to start a more in depth investigation into the blazes in question, also i would think the insueres should by now be getting a tad worried about contiuing to offer cover to any buisness's owned by a person who seems to be so unlucky with fire.

I can bet if you or I had lets say 4 or 5 fires in a short space of time suspisious or not and went to get insurance we would be finding it very hard to get cover for Fire at the very least.

I think its time that thease incdendents were being looked at more closely, I am not including the fire at the TIVOLI in this becasue i beleve but could be wrong a differant comapany owned that buisness.

Cliff C

[EAS]

We don't know if there was insurance cover of course.

Without proof, it's hard to prosecute someone.

We can only speculate and so can the police.

Let's say (not naming names, just a general scenario) that a person wants something burnt down - they can do the job themselves (tricky) or they can be elsewhere with an alibi and pay someone else to do the dirty deed. But without proof of that someone else it's not an easy thing to pin any blame. Someone else will hardly be bragging about it in the pub. Unless there are witnesses, and fingerprints may be hard to get from the scene, the police have their hands tied.

OK most folk haven't access to people who will do this sort of thing but it seems there are those who do.

[Shane]

Hello all,

Having been a member of the forum for almost 3 years, this is the first time I've had the courage to post anything. It is very sad news, I really couldn't (well I still can't) believe this has happened. I don't live anywhere near the park however my Auntie did a few years ago until they moved down near Manchester, which is where I live. And since she told me about Dreamland itself and the Scenic Railway, I've had a big interest about the park and was hoping to get down there when the park re-opens to ride the Scenic and have a look around the park.

My auntie always went there when it was open from the old days to the new days, and the Scenic was her and the family's favorite ride. They were quite shocked when they saw it on the news yesterday.

I really hope the Scenic can be fixed; it will be a big shame if it can't be fixed. But at least there will be something in the park from the coaster as a remembrance, i.e. the cars, signs, etc.

All the best for your Campaign.

[monk.man]

some clips

http://yournews.itvlocal.com/GroupVideo ... 1CDB4C1520

[gregfin]

I could see the smoke from Westgate, when I first saw it I thought a plane had crashed because it looked just like when the fire training school at manston have a burn. Either those timbers were heavily soaked in wood preserver or there was an awful lot of something to cause that amount of black smoke

Thats interesting to read, as I thought it was one of the industrial units at Tivoli industrial estate at first... this was the view out of my window...

http://www.gregfindley.com/images/margatefire.jpg

[vince69619]

Miniman,

I realise that you are new here, so I will explain for you...

The Scenic is built to suit the land it's on, it cannot be rebuilt somewhere else because 'somewhere else' is not going to be the same shape.

Also, it would only be moved if cost effective. If you rebuild it where it is, that's cheaper than a rebuild and move of the structure!

If the owners cannot afford to put this right, lets see them personally bankrupt, the land sold (for one pound) to someone who can rebuild it and the rebuild can begin.

Vince.

[gregfin]

The Scenic is built to suit the land it's on, it cannot be rebuilt somewhere else because 'somewhere else' is not going to be the same shape.

Here is the view of the scenic railway on Google maps (before yesterdays events)...

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=d ... 4&t=h&z=18

[smilerbaker]

Miniman,

If the owners cannot afford to put this right, lets see them personally bankrupt, the land sold (for one pound) to someone who can rebuild it and the rebuild can begin.

Vince.

that simply wont happen, IIRC there is no law to make them restore it, the laws are there to protect it from modifications, but the fire has put pay to that. Worst case is they wont be allowed to knock it down, and it will just stay there as is, expect some more 'unfortunate' fires in the future.
Think brighton's west pier.

[EAS]

There are things which can be done lawfully - it's whether or not the local authority has the guts...

[CW]

Press Release from TDC

http://www.thanet.gov.uk/news/latest_pr ... 04-08.aspx

[miniman]

The Scenic is built to suit the land it's on, it cannot be rebuilt somewhere else because 'somewhere else' is not going to be the same shape.

Also, it would only be moved if cost effective. If you rebuild it where it is, that's cheaper than a rebuild and move of the structure!

Interesting, as I remember it the site was pretty much a flat or at least gently sloping area. But then that was 20 years ago which is a bit hazy! I was basing my theory on the number of other coasters that get moved (e.g. a lot of the Schwartzkopf Looping Star coasters get relocated regularly).

I suppose what I was really saying is - it seems likely that restoration / reopening of the ride would be hampered by the site owner's desires to do other things with the site so perhaps taking it away from the site would at least remove him from the equation.

[thanet26294]

Ok this is a terrible thing that has happened and probably to some degree expected, but whether it was arson or not we are forgetting about the issue here.

What now, what can we do instead of sitting in front of our computers speculating over who did it. Let's do something constructive.

How can we help to secure the future of the scenic railway now and in the future, what should we be doing?

Why not bombard every tabloid newspaper and tv news channel to highlight the plight of dreamland, most of the reports do not mention anything about "The Save Dreamland Campaign"

I think its time we made ourselves heard outside of Thanet.

Any Ideas?

[EAS]

Thanks. Good one. I will put it up as a separate post too? Then it's there for all to read.

http://www.thanet.gov.uk/news/latest_pr ... 04-08.aspx