Dovercourt Holiday Park reacts after huge fire

Firefighters were called to Dovercourt Holiday Park, in Low Road, Dovercourt, at about 7.30am yesterday.

Five crews from Dovercourt, Colchester, Clacton and Manningtree were called to tackle the blaze.

Half of the building, which measures 7m by 5m, was ablaze when crews arrived.

The crews managed to extinguish the fire by 8.20am and it has been confirmed no-one was hurt.

However, the building, which is used as a play area - Cyril’s Den- has been completely destroyed.

Read more:

• Indoor play area is completely destroyed as fire crews tackle huge blaze

Due to the quick response of firefighters, no other buildings or property were affected.

A full fire investigation to establish the cause will take place.

The view from Peter Holder's caravan at the holiday park

A spokesman for Park Holidays UK confirmed a fire has been discovered in the internal play area.

He said: “The emergency services were immediately alerted, and the fire quickly extinguished. The play area was unoccupied at the time, and there were no injuries.

“We would like to express our deep gratitude to members of the fire services who responded promptly to our call and dealt both speedily and professionally with the incident.

“Although the area is currently closed to holiday guests, we hope it will be able to re-open soon, and all other facilities on the park are unaffected.”

Harwich town mayor Ivan Henderson said: “It has been really good to see this park becoming a huge part of Dovercourt’s attraction to tourists.

“I’m really sad to now hear such a large part of its investment has been destroyed.”

Kelly Smith, who helps run activities at Cyril’s Den, took to social media to say: “Just to make you all aware, yes, it is true Cyril’s has been completely burnt down - there is nothing left. To say I’m heartbroken is an understatement.”

The soft play centre reopened in line with Government guidelines on May 17 after a devastating year for the industry.

It will now remain closed at a critical time as children break up for the summer holidays.

Sue Odgers added: “I’m so sorry to see this has happened, it’s where I’ve loved every minute of taking all the grandchildren - they couldn’t wait to get there.”