Friday 26th February 1982
Firemen from Warminster, Frome and Westbury attended a fire at the Pound Street Maltings, Warminster, in the early hours of Saturday 20th February 1982.
Led by Station Officer Gerald Francis the Warminster firemen had to break down a pair of double doors to get inside the building. They were soon joined by the crews from Frome and Westbury. Five and a half hours were spent fighting the fire in the roof of the top floor of the maltings. At one stage, flames billowed 20 feet high in the night sky.
A third of the roof area was destroyed. Repairing the damage has been estimated to cost in the region of £3,500. The skills of the firefighters limited the loss of grain to about one ton and a half. Production of malt was able to continue on the Saturday morning, thanks to the workmen of R. Butcher & Son, the Warminster builders, who arrived, stripping and sheeting down the roof preventing heat from being lost.
The Director of Beaven’s Maltings, Mr. Hugh Turner, praised the firefighters for their actions. The cause of the fire is being investigated, but arson has already been ruled out.