Poundland Elgin manager praises duty manager for swift action and expresses shock at fire being started deliberately
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THE manager of Poundland has expressed his shock at the thought the fire which swept through his Elgin store – putting staff and customer lives at risk – could have been started deliberately.
Gerry McAloon confirmed that IT experts with the company are helping police officers retrieve CCTV footage from the store in the lead up to the fire.
Police Scotland confirmed earlier this week that it was treating the fire last Friday, August 12 as suspicious.
Local Inspector Mark Young said: "We are following positive lines of enquiries."
Mr McAloon paid tribute to his duty manager Sharon Cameron who raised the alarm after spotting a "smouldering package" fall off a shelf in the health and beauty aisle just before she was about to close the store at 6pm last Friday.
A major incident response was put in place by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service with up to 50 firefighters there at the height of the blaze.
Three members of staff were inside the building at the time and they were able to lead a customer in a wheelchair to safety.
Mr McAloon said: "I am so proud of the team for making sure that the customer and themselves were able to evacuate the building safely."
He said the first floor, which houses the CCTV systems unit, was protected from the intense heat by a concrete floor, with some smoke damage upstairs.
Of the fire being declared suspicious by Police, Mr McAloon added: "If this has been a wilful act of arson, this has been done when there were colleagues and customers in the store. If that turns out to be the case, it is a frightening development that there are individuals out there who could do something like that."
Mr McAloon confirmed the fire started in the ladies sanitary products and "very quickly took hold" because it backs on to the aisle containing paper products such as kitchen and toilet rolls
He said his duty manager made the correct call to evacuate the store as the fire quickly spread.
Two fire appliances from Elgin were on the scene inside five minutes of the call coming in and they were supported by appliances from Lossiemouth, Fochabers, Keith, Aberlour, Buckie and Nairn, as well as a turntable ladder from Inverness.
Ambulances and police vehicles were also despatched. One person required treatment for smoke inhalation.
"We send our deepest thanks for the prompt actions of the fire brigade in Elgin and other towns in Moray."
Mr McAloon and architects, along with officials from Morgan Sindall, the construction company rebuilding the front of the building, gained access to the building to make an initial assessment of the damage.
"We thought at first the fire might have been contained to a small area," he said, "but the sales floor is a scene of total devastation."
He described the main sales floor as a "black shell".
While the store is unlikely to reopen before Christmas, Mr McAloon said Poundland remains committed to its Elgin business long-term.
He apologised to customers for the inconvenience of losing their store in the meantime and to neighbouring businesses who lost out on custom on Friday night after they were forced to close.
And he thanked the public for "heartfelt" messages of support in the aftermath of the fire.
He said Poundland has reassured employees in Elgin that they will be supported and continue to be paid during this "distressng and worrying time". This message has been reaffirmed during daily communication with staff.
Mr McAloon admitted it had been a challenging week since the fire.
He has been manager of the Poundland store since October 2009 but his history with the building stretches back nearly 30 years to February 1993 when he took over as manager of the former Woolworths store.
He had a brief period out of work between January and August 2009 after Woolworths went into administration and then liquidation, before he was appointed Poundland manager in October that year.
