The ASDA Fire

[Waffagolf]

I remember shopkeepers of small family businesses standing by ASDA as it burnt and crying. Not because they were sad it was on fire, but because they knew their business would be able to carry on just that bit longer.

[Waffagolf]

Some more ASDA fire pictures

[Llechwedd]

I worked in the office on the pier at the time.  We could see the black smoke and were hoping and praying that it was the tax office on Mostyn Broadway.

[Nemesis]

 

[Trojan]

I remember walking through the Creuddyn with my Father to take a look at the scene. As we headed along Ffordd Tudno three distraught ASDA check-out girls were walking hurriedly towards us.
As they passed, my Dad said, "no work today ladies?"  

"That's a bl**dy funny remark", replied one of the girls.

The black, billowing smoke, cast a huge plume over the town and pots of paint & aerosol cans could be heard exploding inside the building.

I believe a welder working on the roof caused the fire, which must have spread quickly, as the fire station was a stone's throw away.

Quite a bit of looting took place (so I heard) during the aftermath of the fire, and numerous blackened coins started to turn up at the local amusement arcades.

It was around this time that I found out that our electric meter wasn't a money box, as Dad had always said it was. The guy from MANWEB spent ages at our kitchen sink with a nail brush and a bottle of Fairy Liquid.  :twoface:

[Trojan]

This photo courtesy of DaveR illustrates the smoke which could be seen for miles around.

[DaveR]

I worked in the office on the pier at the time.

Who was the General Manager then, John Mills? Where the offices in the Pavilion or at the back of the arcade like now?

[Gixer181]

my mum worked in the wages office there and we used to goto work with her. if i remember right it was started by the fabricator on builders street welding

[Llechwedd]

Yes, Dave, John Mills was Manager and Vaughan Turner Pier Master.  The office were in the Pavillion up the stairs on the balcony over looking the bay.

[Ludo]

My Dad took these pictures of the fire - a big event at the time. I think it had only been open a couple of years or so...

[DaveR]

Great photos! I remember I was in school in Colwyn Bay that day and you could see the big plume of black smoke rising up into the air quite clearly.

[Ludo]

I always had very mixed feelings about the Asda superstore. Yes, it was really handy for shopping all in one place. Yes, it provided jobs for many people. But as someone else said, it also destroyed a lot of the old family businesses like Mace, Macfisheries, EB Jones', one of the Dunphy's stores closed too. The one thing I could never really get over though (and I know it's a bit irrational given the inexorable march of 'progress') was that it sat on the place of a particular shrine for me. The place where as a kid, I had watched Dave Demaine and the boys lift the Cookson Cup, and explored the magical world of Simons funfair. Yes, Asda was built on the site of Llandudno football ground - almost impossible to find any good photographs of it now too...

[Gixer181]

Correct me if I m wrong but thought football ground was more where halfords is and the funfair was where b and q car park is now

[Ludo]

Correct me if I m wrong but thought football ground was more where halfords is and the funfair was where b and q car park is now

No - sorry, here is a Google map showing A, the approximate (but pretty close) location of the centre spot of the pitch in the old Llandudno Stadium, and B, the location of the Swing Boats at the Mostyn Broadway entrance to Simons fair:

http://goo.gl/maps/xPBk

[Ludo]

...or perhaps more accurately:  http://goo.gl/maps/rzS9 Are there really so few photos of the Stadium or am I just using the wrong Google images search criteria?