Sarah
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Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier. Saturday 19 Aug 1939
Page 3 Column 4
BIG BLAZE AT WATCHET
SHOPS AND HOUSES BURNT OUT
Three fire brigades, Taunton, Minehead, and Watchet, joined forces to fight a disastrous fire on Tuesday morning at Watchet, involving a large block of business and residential property in the main street of the town.
Fire broke out in the early hours in a corner of the block in a greengrocer's and fruiterer's shop. Flames spread across a narrow alley and cracked the windows of a confectioner's shop opposite, and in case the wind sprang up and the whole street was involved the Taunton and Minehead brigades were called to help the Watchet brigade.
Having destroyed the shop where it originated, the fire spread along the block and destroyed the ground floor premises of a drapery and furnishing stores.
CROWDS HELP TO REMOVE STOCK
Meanwhile occupants of rooms above the shop premises had been roused and got to safety.
Crowds of visitors formed a chain to remove the stock of an outfitting shop in the same block.
Two shops were destroyed, and two more affected by fire and water, and hundreds of pounds worth of damage done to furniture, drapery, groceries, and the furnishings of over six rooms in the residential part of the building.
Part of the roof along the main frontage collapsed, and there were a series of explosions in which salmon tins, &c., were blown across the street.
A street by the side of the block was closed owing to the danger of cracked walls collapsing.