Horsham town centre fire: business owner praises ‘absolutely amazing’ firefighters

Natasha Hamilton, owner of Ceramic Shack in the town centre, said she was ‘hugely grateful’ to the firefighters after they put out a small fire on Saturday night.

She added: “We must have first heard about it 11 o’clock ish.

“My son drove us over and obviously I was quite upset when we came in.

“They had smashed the door in to get in. There was glass everywhere, it was smelling of smoke but apart from that everything was fine.”

Natasha said the firefighters were ‘absolutely amazing’ and ‘lovely’.

She added: “I was very upset and they were very patient.

“They made sure we were all okay

“They helped clear up all the mess - it was a bit frightening when it happened.

“You worry about things. Apart from that it was okay.”

Cleaning up until the early hours

Natasha said the clean-up operation began immediately and she stayed until the early hours working in the shop.

She added: “We were here until about 3.30am in the morning then we were back at 8am (Sunday morning).

“[The] staff were amazing. Cherry and my partner Daniel were amazing.”

Natasha praised the community spirit in Piries Place and thanked staff at FairKind Child who checked on her.

She said: “[There are] few things with a bit of elbow grease you can’t sort out and I’m lucky I have got good people around me.

“Everyone [in Piries Place] kind of looks out for each other.”

‘Nothing got damaged’

No products were damaged in the fire according to Natasha.

She added: “We had had a busy night on Friday night so we had more items than normal here.

“Our main concern is that people’s stuff is done nicely to a nice standard and nothing’s ruined.

“Nothing got damaged. Everything that was in the kiln came out the kiln absolutely fine.”