Dear Sir
Those walking along the High Street on Saturday afternoon may have seen a fire engine outside the Rye Art Gallery (as reported elsewhere in this edition).
At about 4pm on that day, there was smoke in the Gallery kitchen as something had inadvertently been left on the cooker hob, so the fire brigade was called. There were no flames. The situation was brought under control within a minute or so of the fire engine arriving.
The Gallery Director, Jane Fenn and other staff on the premises all acted quickly and efficiently and all visitors were evacuated safely. We are pleased to report that there were no injuries, no damage to the Gallery that a bit of cleaning cannot solve, and no harm at all to any of the artwork whether in the permanent collection or for sale.
Naturally, as is best practice for all organisations, we will be looking at our fire procedures and prevention processes carefully, but urgently, to see if there are any lessons to be learned and any improvements warranted.
We would like to apologise for the traffic congestion that resulted in the High Street by the arrival of the Fire Service on what was one of the busiest afternoons of the year.
The Gallery remains fully open as normal.
Photo: Rye News Library
Image Credits: Kenneth Bird .