Hot off the press! Melksham firefighters save Melksham News building

MELKSHAM News and the GoodNews Church have praised Melksham’s firefighters for coming to the rescue when a fire broke out in the kitchen of the building they share in the Market Place. 

The Melksham crew, and one from Trowbridge, were called to “that meeting space”, formerly the ArtHouse Café, on the evening of Tuesday 28th September. 

The fire service reports, “On arrival, crews found a fire within the kitchen area of the building. Two breathing apparatus wearers used one hose reel jet to extinguish the fire.   

“The stop message came through at 9.14pm and crews remained on scene until 10.13pm. The cause of the fire has not been confirmed in the log.” 

Their quick response meant that the Melksham News’ team was able to resume work the next morning in their office on the first floor above the kitchen, whilst the GoodNews team were able to continue with their work, preparing the building to be opened as a new community meeting space. 

Melksham News’ operations manager, Joe McCann said, “I want to extend our thanks to the firefighters for their prompt response and their professionalism during the incident. They are a credit to our small town.”

John Firth from the GoodNews Church added, “Thank you to the fire service – and a big thank you to local electricians, Slic Electrical, for coming out early the next morning to ensure that the building was safe to work in.” 

The fire occurred days after the Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service had launched an appeal for new recruits to join the Melksham team, after a house fire in Melksham. Because of a lack of available firefighters, the Melksham fire service was unable to attend the emergency on 26th September, which was located just 150m from the fire station. 

The appeal for new recruits is still ongoing. 

Area manager Seth Why said, “On-call firefighters are paid employees who receive the same training and development as wholetime colleagues and can be called to all manner of emergencies, including fires, road traffic collisions, animal rescues and flooding.  

“This is a fantastically rewarding job where you are actively part of your community.  We need more people to help keep our fire engines available, so we would encourage anyone who wants to find out more about the job to get in touch with their local station.”