Staff praised for evacuating 100 wedding guests during pier fire

Phil Duckett, managing director of the pier’s southern pavilion, said the fire ‘could have been a lot worse’ as around 100 wedding guests were enjoying a disco at the moment smoke was seen ‘bellowing’ out from under the disabled toilet door.

He said a discarded cigarette must have been thrown down outside and blown into the wooden panelling around the disabled toilet at the side of the pavilion.