An alarm monitoring company and an intruder alarm company are being sued for £39 million by the owners of Weston Super Mare pier, which was severely damaged in a blaze in 2008.
Legal papers have been served on Essex based Yeoman Monitoring Services and System 2 Security Ltd in Weston by the pier’s owner, Grand Pier Ltd.
At the time more than 100 firefighters tackled the blaze, which destroyed the pavilion on the pier. It was since rebuilt and reopened in October 2010.
At the time of the fire, it’s alleged that System 2 was responsible for providing alarm monitoring services to the pier and had sub-contracted Yeoman to carry this out.
The owners of the pier claimed it could have been saved if the two companies had arranged for appropriate action by the alarm receiving centre as soon as an initial fire alarm was received at around 1.35am on 28 July, 2008, according to This is Somerset.
David Cogel, a director of System 2, told the news provider: "As far as I am concerned, everything was done to contract and everything worked perfectly."
According to the news report, the dispute revolves around whether the alarm receiving company made sufficient efforts to contact key holders for the pier, and whether those key holders were available.
Commenting on the move, Yeoman Monitoring Services issued a statement to info4fire.com through their lawyers:
"Whilst a claim for damages has been made by the owners of the Pier against various parties including Yeoman Monitoring Services Ltd, that claim is in the hands of solicitors on behalf of Yeoman Monitoring Services Ltd to be defended.
“There will be no further comment in view of the matter being in litigation."
