20th February
I drive into Kendal and park up away from the blocked off area. Walking towards the studios along Highgate – it’s deserted – the high crane brought in from Barrow in Furness dominates the sky line. By now we know the police suspect arson.
I meet up with Jill, Elizabeth and Donna (studio artists) behind the building. The extent of the damage at the rear where the fire started is immense. The front of building on the main street appears relatively normal apart from the fact that the roof over my and Jill’s space had to be pulled away to dowse the fire that got into the roof and was spreading along the terraced buildings. At the front I can still see my space intact through the window but know that debris and water and now weather will be destroying the contents.
The back of the building is so damaged the whole building is unstable. The rear wall looks ready to collapse. The floors must be unstable. What was onece a grand Georgian building with a floating cantilevered spiral staircase with cupola window overhead now looks like it could collapse at any minute.
My thoughts are so mixed. Loss of work from the last decade, work being prepared for my show with Richard in April at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal – and yet also the thought that I want some of the charred wood and ashes to do something with – a drawing or something, I don’t know yet. Although Jill says I’m ahead of her thinking so positively, I know how poignant it would be to use pigment from the fire in some way.
We can’t do anything so go for coffee. As we return to the scene the crane is in use with a new fire tender on the scene. The fire has restarted and more water is being dropped into the building. We learn later that the fire restarted from a drawer in a filing cabinet in what was left of our studio office. Having got in it was kept secure until released presumably by a rush of oxygen when the drawer was opened, its still unclear exactly how.
As the day progresses we realise that we may never be allowed in to see what we can salvage. Even the police can’t get in to complete their inquiries into the cause of the fire.
