Thurso chip shop owner's anguish over blaze

A THURSO businessman has described the “longest five or 10 minutes” of his life as he watched his business go up in flames earlier this week.

The Riverside Fish Bar, owned by brothers Gary and Graeme Reid, suffered extensive smoke and fire damage after a fryer caught fire during lunch service on Wednesday.

Reids of Caithness director Gary Reid explained the outbreak started in a chip fryer around 20 minutes after the midday lunch-time opening and, despite heroic efforts, he and his staff could not stop the flames from reigniting.

“Watching it burn outside I just felt so helpless,” he yesterday told the John O’Groat Journal. “We really tried. A few of us kept battling until the smoke got too bad. We just shut the doors and by the time the fire brigade got there it was just gone.”

Mr Reid and his staff battled the blaze with a powder fire extinguisher before leaving the premises. “Although it was going out, it kept catching and we couldn’t stop it from reigniting so I shouted to all the staff to evacuate and, luckily, we did a decent fire drill across the road, made sure everyone was out the building and did a head count and then I phoned the fire brigade on my mobile,” he said.

“There are parts of it that are okay but it’s stinking of smoke and the whole fryer’s gone. It’ll need to be gutted out.”

He added: “I don’t know how long we’ll be shut for.”

Two fire engines attended to extinguish the blaze using foam branches and dry powder extinguishers, while firefighters used breathing apparatus.

Mr Reid said when the two firemen first entered the building he doubted they could see much more than a foot in front of their faces, and praised the local crew for its help.

He could also not give enough praise to his staff who, he said, excelled themselves in the circumstances.

“My staff have been absolutely excellent and I want to praise every single one of them,” he said. “Even afterwards when we were in a bit of shock, they rolled their sleeves up and got in about it and got things done.”

The director commended his wholesaler, BFP, which restocked the bakery next door – also owned by the brothers – after every open ingredient had to be dumped. “It’s an experience I don’t want to happen ever again,” said Mr Reid. “It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just one of these things that happen.”

The loss of the chip shop comes just days after the Reid brothers were celebrating a proposed expansion of their bakery business to a bigger premises in the town.

They are currently seeking planning consent to move their operation from the factory at Riverside Place to a manufacturing unit in Ormlie Industrial Estate.

Mr Reid said the fire should have a minimum impact on the other aspects of the business.