THE owner of the iconic House of Lords in Barrow has recalled the heart-stopping moment he was told the listed building was being destroyed by a fire.

Speaking exclusively to AMY FENTON from Australia where he is now based with his wife Paula, businessman Roger McKimm said he was called at 5am local time, just after the fire started.

Mr McKimm, who owns the former Working Men's Club, and the adjoining Bar Continental, has not been involved in the day-to-day running of the venue for a number of years, and was horrified when he received the call from tenant Craig Armes.

"Our initial thought was that something bad had happened to one of our family as it was so early," Mr McKimm said from Perth in Western Australia.

"We were incredibly shocked and worried for the firefighters especially."

Around 60 firefighters were involved in tackling the blaze, which filled much of Barrow town centre with smoke and burning embers. As the fire continued to burn, Mr McKimm and his wife followed the coverage online, and said videos and pictures made for "very tough viewing".

"We are both shocked and devastated by the whole situation but eternally thankful that no one was hurt," Mr McKimm said.

"Apparently there was a pool competition going on at the time and the firefighters well; they were just amazing."

Mr McKimm, who grew up on Walney, is well-known for his various enterprises in Barrow and Ulverston, having started out as the owner of a mobile disco business.

He owned the Cry nightclub in Cornwallis Street, the Railwaymens Club in the Strand and the Dirty Duck pub in Raglan Street as well as the Sub Zero nightclub in the basement of the Cooke's Building, which he sold to Barrow Borough Council for £180,000 in 2006.

He bought the House of Lords, nicknamed because of the difficulty in gaining membership during its years as a working men's club, in 1997, but left it in the hands of employees after emigrating to Australia.

Mr McKimm revealed to the Evening Mail that the building had not been empty at the time of the fire, and was being used for storage. He said staff were "constantly" going in and out of the building.

Mr McKimm said: "The building was alarmed and as far as we are aware, extremely secure. We were told the firefighters had some difficulty gaining access."

A structural engineer has been appointed by Mr McKimm's insurance company's loss adjustor, who is today due to visit the site to assess whether or not it is safe for fire investigators to enter the building.

Mr McKimm said he was "as much in the dark as anyone regarding the investigation" and said his only concern now is that "the building is made safe".

He added: "We have no immediate plans to return to Barrow as we have a representative liaising with the relevant authorities."

Meanwhile, a fire investigator has said he is determined to get to the bottom of the blaze.

Having been involved in fire investigation for 15 years, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service station manager Roger Exley has plenty of experience in the field.

Mr Exley will today hopefully find out if he and his team are allowed into the site to begin the painstaking process of digging through the rubble to find the cause of the fire.

However, if the structural engineer says the building is unsafe, the investigation could be delayed.


Roger Exley at the scene "If it's not safe it will have to be levelled first," Mr Exley said.

"I want to do some digging in the area where we believe the fire started to see what caused such a ferocious fire.

"We would try and reconstruct what it looked like before and get some idea of the pattern of burning."

The front, right-hand annexe of the building, which collapsed first, is believed to be where the fire started.

If allowed inside, fire investigators will examine the remains of the building to find evidence of any accelerants which could explain why the fire was so fierce.

"For a Victorian building it shouldn't have come down that quickly," Mr Exley said, although he added that materials used in the building might explain the speed at which the fire took hold.

"We will look at what can cause a fire then try and remove those sources of ignition which are not present.

"We might not find anything, we might be in the same position as we are now but we have to have a look. It will take some time; you have to go through it bit by bit."

If and when the investigation are allowed inside, specialist units from Manchester or Liverpool could be involved, including fire dogs which can sniff out the use of any accelerants such as gas or petrol.

Mr Exley added: "It might take some time, but we will do our best to get to the bottom of what caused the fire and why it was so ferocious."