Hull's Valbon Nightclub re-opens one week after blaze
The venue was badly damaged in last week's fire.
Hull's Valbon nightclub re-opens today - a week after it was badly damaged in a fire.
300 people had to be evacuated after the blaze broke out at the newly-launched venue in George Street in the early hours of last Saturday morning.
Two men have been charged with arson in connection with the incident and appeared in court earlier this week.
Manager Jason Herringshaw told Viking they will bounce back from what's happened and says it's been hard getting the club ready to re-open again - but it is safe. He said:
"Looking back I can now say that inside I must have been frightened, no-one really knew what was happening and it was only until we evacuated people very quickly and then waited for the fire brigade that smoke then started to come through the building and customers saw that there was a fire happening.
"I only saw the flames once the fire brigade came and we went round the back of the club and that's when we saw some flames coming over. The fireman quickly got through that door and I can only thank my staff and the customers in quickly listening to us and evacuating, they obviously understood we had some sort of issue happening.
"Part of the club suffered significant damage, the fire was contained in the area but we had electrical damage, fire alarm damage and surface areas damages and only after four nights of trading but tradesmen have really helped us out and we have had confirmation that it is now safe to open.
"We were all very gutted however we knew that we could bounce back. It was very key that we did bounce back because somnething very bad has happened but the quicker you get back up and running, the stronger you become.
"We won't be beaten. At the end of the day we did say we will be back and we are coming back very quickly but that doesn't mean safety is being compromised as we are safe to open and we will be here for the long run."