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Thousands of pounds have been flooded for the Salvation Army in St Ives after many donations for their Christmas appeal were destroyed in the fire last night.
A call was made to 999 around 5.09pm last night, to reports of a fire on Wharf Road, prompting police, ambulance and firefighters to attend.
Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said the incident “escalated” and at 10:20 pm and in total, 20 different fire stations were used during the incident.
Appliances from St Ives, Penzance, Hayle, Perranporth, Falmouth, St Just, Truro, Newquay, St Austell, Helston, St Dennis, Tolvaddon, Mevagissey, Wadebridge, Fowey, Bodmin and Padstow were present at the incident.
Nathan Loxley, who works for the Salvation Army in St Ives, said the branch has been “overwhelmed” by the kind donations.
They originally created a JustGiving page in an attempt to raise £ 1,100 as part of their Christmas appeal, which includes toys for families with financial difficulties and food baskets for people who will be spending the holidays alone.
Initially around £ 400 was raised, but after the fire that destroyed some items last night, there has been an influx of generous donations totaling now £ 6,157, which is more than £ 5,600 raised in 24 hours.
And donations keep increasing rapidly.
Nathan Loxley told CornwallLive that they have received many phone calls today from people offering to come and help save what they can.
He said: “We are really overwhelmed by how generous and kind the people have been. We are overwhelmed by the unity of the community.
“We got to the building in about an hour to see the damage, but I know there were about 100 toys and a lot of food packages there.”
The fire started last night at The Harbor St Ives fish and chip shop on Wharf Road
(Image: Ben Tredinnick)
Firefighters worked all night to put out the flames, it was severe that they called twenty fire trucks.
Nathan continued: “It stretched out on our roof and we all stood watching it for a few hours in the rain, but when they told us it would be hours before it went out, we went home.”
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The money that has been raised on the page so far will go toward buying new toys along with food as part of their holiday appeal. Nathan told us that all money on the page will stay local and that the plan is to keep the JustGiving page open.
Your holiday appeal will see all donated toys for children under the age of 18 whose families are struggling financially and cannot afford to receive gifts this year.
Nathan said: “We’ve seen an increase in that this year because of Covid and all that, things are tight right now.
“The food baskets are part of the Cornish Christmas box drive so that’s for people who will be alone at Christmas to try and lift their spirits.”
Today, people have the opportunity to donate food or toys at St Ives Guildhall and St John’s in-the-Fields
If you want to donate to your JustGiving page, you can do so here.
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