At approximately 8.30pm on Friday 11th August we had a vehicle fire break out at our Rochford (Essex) Operation Centre. We are incredibly thankful that no loss of life or injuries occurred.
The emergency services responded very quickly, and we are very grateful to the fire services for creating a fire break and preventing further spread, working in conjunction with our own incredible team who returned to the Operation Centre to assist.
As we all know, storing damaged vehicles carries risk and the vehicles impacted were stored in racking. Rochford is the only site with racking, as we inherited it that way.
We do not support this storage method due to inherent risks of this nature, which is why the recent acquisition and extension of this site will allow us to continue with our plans to remove the racking at this site going forward.
Sadly 500 cars were damaged in some way, not 700 that has been incorrectly reported. The clean up operation is underway and there has been no disruption to business or the auction timetable.
Sincere thanks to our loyal customers who contacted us to check on the wellbeing of our staff and for everyone’s patience in these circumstances. It is very much appreciated.
