News / KNowle West
Charity shop catches fire for second time in two years
A charity shop in south Bristol has been set alight for the second time in less than two years.
The fire on Saturday night saw firefighters and police rush to re:store on Filwood Broadway in Knowle West.
Avon Fire & Rescue said the cause of the incident is thought to have been deliberate ignition.
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Eyewitnesses told Bristol24/7 the blaze was started after youths ignited a bag of donations left outside the shop.
Avon & Somerset Police added that they are treating the incident as suspicious and that a criminal damage investigation is underway.
Secondhand shop re:store, pictured during a workshop in September 2022, has been hit by fire – photo: Charlie Watts
The fire was reported at 8.16pm and extinguished within 30 minutes.
Fortunately, re:store was closed at the time of the incident and there were no injuries.
Though there was no damage to the inside of the property, the fire ripped through its shutters and cracked a window.
The last fire at the Knowle West shop in January 2021, pictured, saw it shut for a year – photo: Avon Fire & Rescue
A previous fire at re:store, which has flats above it, completely gutted the shop in January 2021.
It took the owner – social enterprise re:work – a year to repair the damage, with the shop reopening in February 2022.
In a statement on Facebook, re:store said they will be open as usual following the latest blaze.
They said: “If we could use this incident to point out that leaving bags of unwanted belongings outside a charity shop when it is closed is not a donation, it is not helpful, it is fly tipping and a fire risk.
“We would also like to point out that Filwood/Knowle West is a wonderful area and is home to a lot of wonderful people many of whom are wonderful children. I don’t know who set fire to the rubbish bags, but I don’t think they represent all “kids” and I doubt if they fully thought their actions through.
“And, yes this is the second fire in our shop in two years. The first one was an accident, caused by a defective heater. The shop was shut for a year and the claim to replace the fixtures and fitting was less that our trading income and did not cover the loss of earnings or the cost of us driving, organising and managing the reopening. It nearly broke us.”
Charlie Watts is reporting on Knowle West as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media
Main photo: Charlie Watts
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