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| Heartbreaking! Flames rip through the building (Photo: Susannah Parnaby) |
THE birding community is this week still in disbelief at the weekend blaze that destroyed the observatory building at Fair Isle - probably Britain's most celebrated offshore destination for seeing rare migrants. It is only seven years since the £4-million building was opened. It has not yet been established what caused Sunday's fire which is understood to have started in the roof. Happily no one was in the building, but the warden and his family lost their home. On Monday, this statement was issued by the observatory team.
We are extremely saddened to report that the entire building has suffered extreme damage from the fire and has been completely destroyed.
Investigations into the cause of the fire are underway and at this time we don't want to speculate any further.
We know that it was reported around 11.20 on Sunday morning (March 10).
Thankfully, nobody was in the building at the time, and we are very pleased to confirm that David and Susannah Parnaby and their girls are safe.
We would also like to confirm that the wealth of bird census data collected by the observatory since 1948 data is digitised and backed up safely.
We have, however, lost items that are irreplaceable, including original artwork by Richard Richardson, the hand-written diaries of George Waterston, who founded the observatory in 1948, and personally-donated private libraries.
We should like to give our sincere thanks to all the fire crews and emergency services who worked tirelessly to try and save the building.
This included the local Fair Isle fire crew who were joined by colleagues from Lerwick and Sandwick in Shetland.
We also thank the Maritime & Coastguard Agency Rescue helicopter and the crews of the RNLI lifeboat and the Shetland Islands cargo pilot boat for their assistance in transporting fire crew and equipment to the island.
We are indebted to the Fair Isle Community (of just 55 people) for their continued support and particularly for taking care of David, Susannah, Grace and Freyja at this time of need.
We have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from across the globe - from Shetland, the birding community and beyond - with many folk asking for details of how they can donate.
We have comprehensive insurance, so, at least at this time, we are not launching a major fundraising campaign.
There will inevitably be elements where the full cost of the disaster will not be fully covered by insurance, and once the situation becomes clearer we may launch future appeals for help to replace specific items.
However, if you would like to make a donation to help support the key work of Fair Isle Bird Observatory while we get back on our feet then that would be very much appreciated.
We will not be able to honour bookings for 2019 or 2020 and the refund of deposits will be processed in due course.
There is limited accommodation elsewhere on the island.
Our priority now is to support David and Susannah with a medium-term aim to continue with as much ornithological census and research work as is feasible in the circumstances.
We are all still in a state of shock but are committed to rebuilding and continuing the important work of the bird observatory.
* The link to the donation page is at:
http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/donations.html
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