Five minutes from disaster

The fire, which took hold of the beer store of the Rebels Tavern at around 1pm on Tuesday, could have caused the whole of the main stand at Woodside Road to go up in flames if it had been left for five minutes longer.

When fire crews arrived they found the beer cellar area under that stand well alight, which caused severe damage. The public bar area sustained severe smoke damage.

Club president Morty Hollis was out on the pitch when the fire started.

He said: "I was just mowing the lines out on the pitch and I could smell something. I thought it was someone's dinner cooking.

"Andy Alexander (study centre manager) was in the boardroom and he came out saying the fire alarms were going.

"I rushed back towards the bar and saw the smoke billowing out. I told Andy to call the fire brigade.

"They came within five minutes and put it out. They told me that it was just five minutes away from a flashover that would have destroyed the whole lot."

The Rebels Tavern is expected to be closed for at least two months and the club is currently fighting to get water, electricity and gas through to the dressing rooms before Saturday's game against Salisbury City.

Mr Hollis said: "We are determined that the club will play the game on Saturday. We are now fighting time to get the services connected to that area and we have no phones at the moment. I will put a pipe through myself if necessary."

Worthing fire sub officer Shaun Lawrence said: "Because a lot of the doors were shut it stopped the fire from spreading any further. If they had not been shut it would have been a lot, lot worse. It was very lucky."

The fire investigation unit and Seeboard were called to the scene. When the Herald went to press, it was thought a leak from an automatic glass cleaner on to electrical cabling caused the fire.

Today, the ground is due to be inspected by the chairman of the Football Conference for ground grading, something that was organised before the fire.

The last time the conference chairman visited the club was at the end of the 1984-85 season, days after a fire which caused the club's main stand to burn down.