Building contractor speaks out after receiving 'flack and abuse' over SmartMart demolition on Waterloo Road
A building contractor who was assigned to the demolition of a Blackpool building after a huge blaze has spoken out about the abuse he received over how it was conducted.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service despatched 15 fire engines, two aerial ladder platforms, a drone unit and a command support to the building fire on Waterloo Road on Friday, February 6.
Smart Mart, Smart Play and South Shore Pitstop Cafe were among the businesses affected, with the indoor play area "completely destroyed" by the fire.
Business owner Steven Orwin later confirmed no one was hurt and announced SmartMart has relocated to a temporary store in General Street while recovery efforts continue.
Demolition crews have since moved in as the damaged structure is taken down following the fire.
Among them is Pete Marquis, of Peter Marquis Contractors who claims to have received ‘flack and abuse’ about how his driver reduced the fascade of the building.
He said: “Myself, my company and my driver received a lot of criticism, flack and abuse about how my driver reduced the fascade of this building, - last Sunday we were called by Blackpool Council to look at the emergency demolition of SmartMart on Waterloo Road alongside the fire brigade as we are on Blackpool Council’s approved list of contractors.
“Having looked at the damaged building we deployed a 22 ton excavator to carry out the works, this machine on arrival was very slightly short of reach to reduce this fascade ,( I would be the first to admit that) it had a shear attachment with it which we put on to give us ample reach to reduce the brickwork by pushing it inwards, I did know that there would be a steel goalpost in the structure (that’s why we had taken a shear) but I hadn’t imagined how well made this structural goal post would be, once we had started we were committed!!
“And it was me on a two way radio to the driver who told him to keep knocking his way through the wall, ( I admit this did look rough) but we were at this point committed and needed to gain entry asap for the fire brigade, our option would have been to deploy a 50ton excavator from our yard which would have been a 3 or 4 hour operation and time wasn’t on our side as this is what I said from tho outset an emergency demolition, so within an hour, how rough it may of looked fascade was down and the fire brigade could do their thing.”
He added: “This was under MY instruction not my driver’s choice, this man has worked for me 20 years and is as good as they come, so just to confirm it was MY decision to proceed in this way not his , so any abuse should be delivered to ME not him.
“We have been in the demolition industry 35 years and feel that with the experience gained in them years this was the correct way to proceed in this situation given the circumstances. It was raised to the ground safely within an hour with no injury or damage to machine unfortunately social media can seem to be full EXPERTS wether they are or not.”
Take a look at some of pictures of demolition crews at work