“It was terrifying” – neighbour woken up by explosions just feet away

Monday 07 December 2015

Neighbour Richard Goodridge has described the moment he woke up to explosions and saw flames from Gallichan Marine reaching just feet from his bedroom window.

Richard says that he and his wife Ellie fled their house carrying their three-month-old daughter Beatrice as the flames at the boatyard next door rose higher than their house, and the acrid smoke from burning fibreglass covered the area.

“I woke up and heard banging and explosions,” he said.

“I thought originally that it was flares or something. But it happened about ten times and I could see the light, the flames were lighting up the bedroom.

“I looked out of the window and saw that the flame was about six to nine feet away from the bedroom window.

“They were reaching higher than the house.

“I woke my wife up, we have a three-month-daughter, so we picked her up, carried her out and started running. We just kept moving back and back.

“It was terrifying. We didn’t know what the hell was going on.

“Compared to what it grew to… when I saw it, it was a 12 foot flame coming out of the roof.”

Pic credit: Sean Henstridge