Two separate fires broke out at the Emmaus Gloucestershire shop on Chequers Road on Monday 9th March. Gloucestershire police are investigating and treating it as arson.
The Emmaus Secondhand Superstore in Chequers Road, Gloucester, was hit by two separate fires just hours apart that damaged clothing and bric-and-brac in storage buildings that were worth thousands of pounds.
Chief executive Joe Feeley said the first fire started at around 5pm in one temporary building and the second at another temporary building at around 10pm.
“The first fire started at the back of our Chequers Road branch at around 5pm and it gutted the building, and smoke damaged another building. The fire service were called out and I was at the scene until around 9pm when it had all settled down and the fire was out.”
Then this morning, he learned that the fire service had attended again after being called out at around 10pm as a second building had gone up in flames and was also completely destroyed.
The shop is still open for business – although the lack of storage space means Emmaus will have to be more selective in what it can take in because of limited storage space.
The buildings were used for clothing and bric-and-brac and a third building may not be useable again.
“Thousands of pounds of stock has been ruined. It’s a tragedy. The kindness and generosity of people in Gloucester has gone up in smoke. But we urge people to keep on donating and to support our work.”
Gloucestershire Police are asking anyone with any information to contact police quoting incident number 380 of the 9 March.
Emmaus Gloucestershire will still be accepting donations throughout this time. Collections can be booked online here.