Probe into club blaze

Published 2 Aug 2010 11:21

A BLAZE that ripped through a golf club locker room has destroyed thousands of pounds worth of equipment.

Fire crews battled the flames at Renfrew Golf Club in the early hours of Saturday morning as a fire tore through the men's changing room.

Many of the 500 lockers which had members golf clubs and equipment inside have been completely destroyed while the rest have been badly smoke damaged.

Members turned up throughout the day to recover their golf bags from the locker room, which is covered in black soot, and assess the damage to their clubs.

Captain of Renfrew Golf Club, Colin Pope, explained that fire inspectors have ruled out that vandals started the blaze.

However it remains unclear as to what triggered the early morning fire and it could take three months for the report to be finished.

He added: "The fire started out in the gents locker room behind the door.

"There is a lot of smoke damage all the way through the club apart from the kitchen area.

"There is smoke damage at the back of the bar which backs on to the locker room."

Colin also said that around 300 sets of clubs have been damaged by smoke while a further 20 or 30 sets were completely destroyed in the blaze.

One golfer, who has been a member for over 30 years, went and collected his clubs over the weekend.

He said: "The locker room will have to be rebuilt taken down to a shell and put back together.

"The clubs in the lockers are smoke damaged and burnt away depending on where your locker was.

"I haven't had a look at my clubs yet.

"I threw them in the garage yesterday - I will have a look at them later and see if I can clean them up.

"I spoke to a couple of lads and they said their's cleaned up OK but the smoke will be in the hand grips so at least they will need to be re-gripped if not replaced."

Five fire engines attended the incident just after 1.20am and remained there until 6pm on Saturday night.

The course was closed over the weekend and the family day, which is a big event on the club's calendar, had to be postponed due to the damage.

The club was reopened for play on Monday.

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This article appeared in The Gazette 28 Jul 10

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