Lounge bar firebombed

The seafront bar / lounge The Mermaid was badly damaged.

At one stage firefighters considered the need to evacuate the mainly-elderly occupants of 107 flats in The Sackville above the De La Warr Parade functions suite.

Dense smoke quickly filled the lower ground floor of the 112-year-old building.

Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus fought their way through the smoke to get into the building shortly after 5.30 on Sunday morning.

Leading Firefighter Graham Hobden said later: "We turned up and a member of staff said there was an incendiary device at the front of the building in the conservatory. A window had been broken and a fire had been set inside the conservatory."

The building was searched to ensure nobody was trapped.

The conservatory was severely fire-damaged and much of the remainder of the ground floor was affected by smoke.

Fortunately, fireproofing between the lower ground and ground floors is designed to resist the spread of a fire for up to two hours.