Big Night Fire Razes Higham Works - 100 Lose Their Employment

One of the most disastrous fires at Higham Ferrers in the last 50 years gutted the greater part of the three-storey factory of Messrs. Borough Shoes Ltd., early yesterday. One hundred employees are out of work.

Flames leaping hundreds of feet in the air when the fire was at its height could be seen for many miles. From Rushden it looked as though the whole of Higham was ablaze.

The factory, which afterwards was only a gaunt, blackened skeleton with gaping windows, is sandwiched between Commercial Street and Warmond's Hill, but though some houses are only half a dozen feet away from the walls, none of the surrounding property was damaged.

Some of the neighbouring residents roused their children when the building was roaring like a furnace and sent them to houses further down the street. At least one woman began to move her furniture.

Messrs. Borough Shoes Ltd., occupy the building, formerly owned by Messrs. A. Sudborough and Son Ltd. A London firm, they have been in operation about three years.

Fifty-one year old Mrs. R. Dunmore, whose house stands a few yards from the damaged part of the factory and whose bedroom window overlooked the part where the fire is believed to have originated was first person to give the alarm.

Rooms Hot

She told a reporter: "I woke my husband and said, 'They are working late at the factory. There is a light in there.' There seemed a flickering light in the windows. He said, 'It's a fire.' He got up and went and phoned the fire brigade. I ran after him.

"When he got back, two or three more windows were alight. We could not see how bad it was. We started to move the furniture out. The rooms were getting hot. If the wind had been this way we would not have had a chance."

Mr. Dunmore, who is a window cleaner, made his fire call at 12.57 a.m.

Rubble

It was alarming for Mr. and Mrs. W. Lawrence, who had an outdoor beerhouse at the rear of the premises and on Thursday piles of rubble in the narrow passageway between their house and the factory wall testified to their narrow escape.

Mrs. Lawrence, who sent their four-year-old son Ivan out of the danger area, said: "The slates, bricks and timbers were thudding down."

Mrs. F. A. Parnell, who lives opposite the factory in a row of houses, whose residents had a gallery view of the blaze, told a reporter: "We woke up and saw a glow. We thought the roof and wall would fall on us and closed all the windows in case sparks flew in."

Also early on the scene was a police constable from Rushden. He looked out over the horizon and later told a colleague: "It seemed as though the whole of Higham Ferrers was blazing."

The firm's clicking, closing, finishing and packing departments were in the damaged part of the building, but as firemen poured water on to still smouldering embers it was practically impossible to distinguish one department from the other.

Foot thick girders which once supported the roof were fallen and twisted, and amid piles of half-completed shoes, now nothing more than rubbish.

A 200-gallon tank of diesel oil had been saved by the work of firemen from Rushden, Wellingborough and Irthlingborough, and an "air bottle" which might have exploded under the heat was in tact.

Mr. Tony Sudborough, the works manager, Mr. S. R. Appleby, the secretary, and the office staff were at work in the office, which fortunately with the lasting room was undamaged.

The press room is situated well away from the main part of the factory.

The firm's managing director, Mr. C. Norman, lives in London and was roused by a telephone call at 4 o'clock. He was on the scene with his wife at 10, although he had been confined to his bed with 'flu for a fortnight.

"I have told the employees to report at 2 p.m. tomorrow," he said. "I am going to put some scheme forward. I don’t know what it will be.

The firm, he explained, has no other shoe factory, although they had another business in London.

Surveying the morning’s scene were Mr. R. W. Abbott (president of Rushden branch of the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives), and the vice-president, Mr. W. T. G. Jones.

Mr. Abbott said: "We want to safeguard the labour. If any other manufacturer is willing to take the labour on we want to make sure they will be able to release the employees, if and when the old firm can re-employ them."

Four Pumps

Mr. Reg Dunmore "It's a fire!"

Explaining how the firemen had been principally concerned with keeping the fire to the part of the premises where it had originated, Deputy Chief Officer Stanton said there were about 27 men in action at the height of the blaze and there were four pumps available.

"We are not grumbling about the water supply," he said.

The fire was under control just before 2.30 a.m.

Gale Hits Burnt Out Factory — Wall Blown Down

AT the height of the gale on Sunday morning, the west wall of the gutted boot factory at Higham Ferrers crashed to the ground. Later, families living nearby were evacuated while demolition squads went to work.

People living in Commercial Street were told not to use their front doors, and the road was cordoned off.

The factory, owned by Messrs. Borough Shoes, Ltd., was destroyed by fire about three weeks ago, and about 100 employees were thrown temporarily out of work. Plans were immediately made for a new building.

Mrs W Lawrence, whose house is nearest the spot where the wall collapsed, described to a reporter how she woke early on Sunday to hear a sound like hailstones falling and then a terrific thud.

"The walls have been a nightmare to me since the fire" she said, "and I dreaded going to bed on Saturday night when I heard there were going to be gales. The yard was full of bricks and pipes, but, luckily, most of the wall fell inwards."

Neighbours were awakened by Mr F Smythe and Mr Lawrence, and Mr Smythe phoned the Police.

Miss Diana Parker, who lives adjacent to the factory said: "I thought the wall next to us would go."

Said Mrs E Partrick: "There were bits of glass flying all over the place. I was frightened the front would fall."

Kettering Fire Brigade turned out under Div. Officer H E Howes and helped finally to demolish the remaining walls.