Blaze breaks hearts

PUPILS at Littlehampton Community School Nursery arrived at school on Tuesday morning to find their beautiful wooden chalet house completely destroyed by fire.

Fire crews arrived at the school just after 8pm on Monday, within seconds of receiving the call, to extinguish the blaze.

Unfortunately, the flames had taken hold far too quickly for any part of the chalet to be salvaged.

Police are treating the fire as suspicious and are confident they will find and arrest those responsible.

Nursery manager Sue Hiscock said: "It is so very sad that our nursery is unable to leave the children s outdoor play equipment in the garden for this constant fear of vandalism, and this final act goes to show why."

This was not the first time the chalet had been subjected to vandalism. Just the previous morning, staff arrived to find the remains of candles on the chalet floor and a bedsheet draped across the front.

In addition, the windows were covered with newspaper and pornographic material was left lying around.

On many occasions, staff have come to work to find the chalet walls daubed with obscene graffiti while the perspex windows have been smashed so often that staff decided it was pointless replacing them.

For the full story, see the Gazette, December 6.