Round-Up: A Major Blaze, Zero Degrees, And An Autism Group

February 10th 2013

Fairfield fire

A serious fire affected the industrial estate on the morning of Sunday, 10th February. The centre of the blaze seemed to be at unit 3 on Bolingbroke Road, which was used by Mono-Poly Printers Ltd.

When I arrived and took these photos half of the street was cut off and there were a lot of fire engines present, as well as some other emergency vehicles. However the worst of the blaze was under control by then (about midday). According to their website the printers at the centre of the fire supply printed packaging products and mostly print on polythene although they also print on polypropylene, paper, nylon and laminates. I mention that to give some idea of what kind of materials may have gone up in smoke.

The Zero Degrees Festival

The Zero Degrees Festival will take place this summer between June 21st and July 14th. Really it's an umbrella event that encompasses the food, music and arts festivals, as well as coinciding with the annual Run For Life.

According to Alan Mumby, the festival chairman, “There is already great enthusiasm from everyone involved and we want to build on that. We want to create a real buzz in the town during those three weeks, and we’ll do that with more street entertainment, banners, festival venue signs and lots more. We want to attract as many visitors and residents to the town centre as we can and that’s got to be good news for the town’s economy.”

The festival organisers want to hear from anyone who is planning an event during that time, because there will be a chance to be included in the festival brochure for anyone who lets them know about an event before the deadline of 29th March. They are also looking for youngsters willing to take part in a "Louth's Got Talent" event.

That's all very encouraging, but it comes in the wake of Councillor Andrew Leonard's disparaging comments about certain local festivals, including the Louth-based Wolds Words Festival. There's an element of the self-fulfilling prophecy about that kind of attitude, in that if you declare an event is unimportant people will be discouraged from coming to it.

So let me just put this out there: Wolds Words is awesome. Over the years I've met many fascinating people through it, and I've learned a lot as a result of its workshops. And this summer you'll get the chance to find out just how much that is, when my novella hits the (virtual) shelves.

New autism group

In the last update I mentioned the new local autism group which Ray Smith has formed. It now has a Facebook page, and a cheery name, LAAFS, which stands for Louth Area Autism Family Support.