SO Blazing! - John Byford
Skegness Seafront fire 2007
Skegness Seafront fire 2007
🇬🇧 Busters Fun Pub 2018 / Exhibition of images in foyer.
Skegness Fire in 2007 - Photo John Byford - Limited Edition prints for sale.
Skegness is SO Blazing
On the night of 17 August 2007, Skegness faced one of its darkest hours. A fire ripped through the seafront with brutal force, devouring buildings along Grand Parade and turning the sky black. More than 120 firefighters battled a raging inferno that refused to give up ground.
John Byford was there in the heat and chaos, documenting every moment as the town burned. His photographs captured the raw terror of that night — the flames, the confusion, the eerie glow reflected in stunned faces. The devastation was so severe that the story, and Byford’s images, went nationwide, carried by almost every major news channel and newspaper in the country.
In 2018, those photographs — including several never seen before — were brought home to Busters, now standing on the very site where the fire once roared. Installed as a permanent exhibition, the work confronts visitors with the reality of what happened: a moment when Skegness was pushed to the edge.
The blaze struck after a bleak, rain-soaked July that had already battered the summer season. When the sun finally came out, the fire hit harder still — tearing into the fragile optimism the town had only just regained.
“The flames eventually died,” Byford says, “but the impact didn’t. Its shadow still lingers over Skegness.”
Images from that night also appear in Wanderlusting, the new book by John Byford.
Text and images ©John Byford ~ All rights reserved