SIDCUP: Massive blaze at garden centre (From News Shopper)

There was alot of rumours going on about this fire. The BMW garage next to the garden centre was on fire and also that all the animals were killed in the fire in the garden centre. Don't know if the last was true. The road was completely closed off so no-one could go near the place at all to see if the fire had spread. It was still smoking at around 9pm.

(Forgot to add) and the apparent reason the blaze started was due to to warehouses at the back of the garden centre containing gas cannistors had become to hot and the gas canistors exploded.

Looks like the hamsters we bought from there on Sat had a lucky escape!!
(Didn't look like there was many animals there fortunately!)

Saw all the smoke on the way back from Bluewater, couldn't believe how much there was and how thick it was!

I was shopping in ruxley manor when the fire started. To be honest I dont think it was gas canisters exploding, it looked as if the fire started in trees at the back of the warehouse. When I exited you could see these trees on fire. However within only 2-3 minutes the warehouse had also taken fire and you could see flames coming from the roof of the warehouse with plumes of smoke. Frightening to see how quickly fire can take hold. I chatted with fellow shoppers in the car park and we couldnt work out why the trees would be on fire - it was a hot day but surely not hot/dry enough to spark a fire.

The thing that surpirsed me the most was that there were no fire alarms ringing. Inside the store there was a simple tannoy message asking us to leave the building due to a fire and a few staff ushering us out - no real urgency. That is really surprising to me, especially at the rate the fire spread - shouldnt the fire alarms have been going off?

I was at Ruxley when the fire broke out and the staff were amazing - but WHERE WERE THE FIRE ALARMS AND PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS ??? How can a place like that have so many members of the public visiting and not have the correct systems in place ? This needs to be investigated. Were were at the back in the Acquatic Centre when there were palls of black smoke above the glass roof and coming in the rear door ! We were shown to a side Fire Exit - but there was not a single alarm bell sounding. Quite disgraceful.