A man has appeared in court charged with arson, burglary and possessing an imitation firearm following a fire which destroyed a TV, film and theatrical costume premises.

Thousands of ‘irreplaceable’ costumes were lost in the fire at the two-storey, 16m x 25m premises in Torquay.
Around 50 firefighters tackled the blaze at Lionel Digby’s Flame Torbay business in the early hours of Saturday morning but were unable to save an estimated 10,000 outfits, some of them over 100 years old.

Six fire engines, an incident command unit and a support pump attended the blaze. Crews used six breathing apparatus, one main jet, three hose reel jets and a positive pressure ventilation fan. Tackling the fire proved difficult because of the layout and contents of the building.

Damaged costumes included those used in the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech and in the hit TV series Downton Abbey.

Mr Digby told the Daily Mail that the warehouse was so full of costumes and boxes that firefighters would have found it difficult to move around.

“Quite honestly at 76 years of age do I want to start all over again? Perhaps this is God's way of telling me to take it easy. The business is finished.”

Mr Digby has run the business for 50 years from the same premises in Torquay. He said costumes worn by actors such as Brian Blessed, Simon Callow and Oliver Read were also destroyed.

Daily Mail report and pictures

BBC video before the fire