The manager of a village pub has thanked a community which rallied around after it was shut down by a fire sparked by a faulty tumble dryer.
The Rose and Crown, in Harpley, between Fakenham and King’s Lynn, suffered damage to its porch area on June 13, after a tumble dryer caught fire overnight.
The fire destroyed the washing machine and dryer, along with a fridge with bottles of champagne in and cleaning equipment.
It also burnt out the pub's electricity box, cutting off power across the building. It lost all its fresh and frozen food, along with 10 kegs of ale.
It was one of three tumble dryers causing fires across Norfolk in June.
Beverly Rogers, the front-of-house manager at the pub, said the damage was tough to take, but never expected the community's reaction.
“It has been tough for the past 18 months and having this happen to us just made it a bit tougher,” she said.
“The community's help was amazing, they reached out to see if they could do anything to help. People offered to buy cleaning products or anything we needed.
"It was so amazing to feel people's support in person, to sending in lovely messages over social media.
“It made us all really emotional. In the eight years I've been here this is the most help I’ve ever seen, as we've never had anything like this before.
“We got through it because of the community.”
The main team of staff, including landlady Alice Darlow, has worked every day for the last two and a half weeks in order to get the pub ready to reopen on July 2, as electricity is restored.
They have not started work on the restoration of the porch as they have not had the chance to get their contractors back in.
They did praise the work of the local electricians who she said have worked hard to help them reopen in under three weeks since the fire.
Now the team is ready to get back to what it does best.
“We cannot wait to be back open as we are community-based, we rely on them and we love what we do,” the 21-year old said.
“We rely on our community and we cannot wait to be back open and back to normal.”
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