Belgian bag-maker seeks temporary workshop following fire
16/01/2014
Fabian Vanesse, a well known figure in the town, has a workshop in the upstairs of his home; his main products are handbags, which sell in local boutiques. He has a busy order-book and is now trying to find a way of fulfilling his customers’ demands.
A fire destroyed his own workshop on January 15. Mr Vanesse told local media that he had gone into the workshop at the start of the day to switch on all the equipment before going downstairs for coffee. There was a power-cut and the handbag-maker was unable to return to the workshop to see what had happened because he uses a wheelchair and needs an electric stairlift to go from one floor to another.
“Then I saw smoke and called the fire brigade,” he said.
At one point, firefighters were concerned enough about possible explosions in the house to start organising an evacuation of all the homes in the neighbourhood, but they were able to bring the blaze under control relatively quickly. They concluded that a fault with an oil heater in the upper part of the house was the cause of the incident.
Fabian Vanesse said he was pleased that damage was confined to his workshop, but said he needed to act quickly to find a temporary place to make his bags.
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