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D&P Textiles fire: the morning after

Written by Nicky Getgood on Monday, February 1st, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bbc, birmingham mail, Birmingham Post, Cheapside, D&P textile, digpuss, express and star, fire, rea street

I took a stroll down Cheapside today to take a look at what was left of the D&P Textiles warehouse after the massive fire yesterday. As you can see from the photos, quite a bit of damage has been done – the roof of the storage area has completely gone.

One of the guys clearing up said, “It’s made a lot of mess. But it’s made the news, it’s made this area famous.” Although I’d like to think Digbeth can be famous for a bit more than a fire, he’s not wrong:

BBC News reported on the ’suspicious’ nature of the fire and the building’s asbestos roof, which apparently ‘poses no risk to the public’. Good to know.
The Birmingham Post quoted a lot of numbers – ‘45 firemen tackled the blaze…ten engines, three main jets and a hydraulic platform had been used to douse the fire.’
The Express and Star disagreed with the Birmingham Post and said there were 60 firemen. They’ve got a picture of three of them squirting hosepipes at the blaze.
The Birmingham Mail predicted Monday morning ‘commuter misery’ due to resulting road closures, which I was surprised by as the Bradford Street entrance to Rea Street was open by the end of Sunday and Cheapside is not a major route road. Did anyone experience any problems this morning?

According to an update report on BBC News today, Managing Director of D&P Textiles Phil King has promised the factory will reopen soon, and ‘he hoped his workforce of 35 women would be back at their machines within the next couple of weeks.’ Let’s hope the mammouth clean-up operation he faces goes as smoothly as possible.

Thank God the only casualties were clothes. However, I did manage to find one surviving item – a lone piece red and gold ribbon. This now has a new home in the DiGpuss Shop of found items.

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NYE Express #1: Recovery and Retrospective

Written by Nicky Getgood on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 ( 4 responses )
Tags: alan colson, bbc radio wm, birmingham mail, brett birks, chimerax, cybrum, daz hale, Fiona Cullinan, karen canard, karenstrunks, katchooo, midgediabolik, national express, nyeexpress, Pete Ashton, snowblind, snowshot

A traveler blows in the New Year

After having a very long, marathon sleeping session I think I’ve just about recovered from my 12-hour New Year sit-in in the new Birmingham Coach Station. It was a great night and surprisingly good fun – I cannot recommend enough that everyone spends a little time watching the world go by in the nearest coach or train station, to experience where you live as a traveler. You’ll see a truly different side to your area and get to talk to some very interesting people passing through it, who all have their own stories to tell.

Midge passes through before going to a Sheldon house party

I’ll be writing up some of the stories I got to hear here under the heading NYE Express, a title thought up by Midge, who kindly popped by to see me with a little something to see me through the night. He wasn’t the only one:

Ben Mabbett was at the station waiting for me when I arrived with a little bottle of bubbly in a brown paper bag, which was ever so thoughtful.
Mark popped by with some Jameson’s and his own story to tell (more on that later).
Our very own Carl came along before seeing in the New Year on the balcony of his Digbeth apartment so he could watch the fireworks.
Seeing in the New Year at the station with me were Pete Ashton, Fiona Cullinan and Alan Colson (follow the name links to their very interesting Flickr photos). As were photographer Karen Strunks, Karen Canard and her mother Ada.

National Express Information Desk staff

Thanks to the lovely press office people at National Express, my night there also got a bit of press attention:

A New Year’s Eve article in the Birmingham Mail.
On the morning of New Year’s Eve I was on BBC Radio WM chatting to Daz Hale – you can listen again here for one week (I’m at the tail-end of the show, roughly 2:18 in).
Roughly twenty-two hours later I was back in Radio WM studio chatting to Brett Birks about the experience. The programme is not available to listen again but Alan Colson took a sneaky audioboo: