“I’ve lost everything” – Ver Meadows fire victim speaks out
“You know when you've just gone numb? I've seen things that day that I will never ever wish to see ever again, and that's going to hold me for the rest of my life,” says Ms Cash, a single mother and victim of the terrible fire that virtually destroyed the 15 pitch Ver Meadows Traveller site in Hertfordshire on a sunny Saturday afternoon last weekend.
The Travellers Times caught up with Ms Cash as she was just about to leave the hotel that she and the other victims of the fire have been temporarily housed. The accommodation has been arranged by St Albans and City District Council – which own Ver Meadows Traveller Site - although, crucially the site, like the rest of the 11 Hertfordshire local authority rented Traveller sites, are run and managed by Hertfordshire County Council, who also collect the rents.
Ms Cash was rushing out to sort out her benefits when we called, as the hotel is not free – the victims are charged £150 a room with no cooking facilities or breakfast.
“I’ve lost everything,” says Ms Cash, who is the granddaughter of the original Irish Traveller man from the Cash family who occupied Ver Meadows back in the day and before it became a council-run site.
The same goes for most of the residents of Ver Meadows who have lost everything, as an estimated 90% of the site was wiped out during the fire, and even on the few surviving plots on the edges of the site that were damaged but not totally obliterated, the residents still had to be evacuated and where not allowed in to collect their things and their vehicles until yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon.
“My son, who is autistic and lives with me is 19, he's just finished education,” adds Ms Cash. “His life is upside down. He's lost everything as well. He’s lost all his WWE figures. He had three hundred in his collection. I've been collecting them for him since he was a 7-year-old. He is mentally struggling. My dogs have died in the fire. They told me they were rescued and that the dogs would be safe. My dogs have died because of them.”
Video above is Ms Cash's home burning down. The Travellers Times was made welcome there in Spring 2024 when we were researching another story. Video taken by Ms Cash and used with her permission
By blaming “them”, Ms Cash means Hertfordshire County Council and its Gypsy and Traveller Services, the team that is responsible for the management of Hertfordshire’s council Traveller sites. Ms Cash says that the site has been mismanaged, is overcrowded, the infrastructure does not allow mobile homes to be spaced apart enough for fire regulations, there are no fire walls between the plots and - crucially - the fire and rescue services who attended the fire could not find the single fire hydrant on the site, which hampered their attempts to bring the fire under control.
“I've got the call log from Saturday where I've rung Gypsy Traveller Services management* so many times," says Ms Cash. "I rung the on call so many times. I rung the manager’s own phone numbers so many times. There was no answer off nobody. All I wanted to know is where is the fire hydrant on the site? Eventually a senior staff member rang me back and they couldn’t tell me.”
The Travellers Times has heard the same thing from numerous of the Ver Meadows residents, who were at the site all afternoon watching in horror as their homes, their possessions, their memories and their treasures; things like Ms Cash's son’s WWE figure collection - as well as all but the clothes they were left standing up in – burnt to the ground in front of their eyes. The residents - a tight knit family group - had all been at a holy communion that morning, but when they returned they are convinced that the fire, which started on one pitch, could have been controlled
Two residents also say that the fire fighters themselves from the first fire engines to arrive tried to ring Hertfordshire Council Gypsy Traveller Services to find out where the fire hydrants were – but all to no avail.
Instead, say the residents, the fire brigade – which, according to the Council, eventually sent eight fire appliances and a water bowser to Ver Meadows and took until 10.30pm to finally extinguish the last of the smouldering embers – ran hoses to the nearby river Ver which they then used to keep filling a water bowser to keep the hoses from the fire appliances running.
“The fire brigade had to run the hoses to the river,” says Ms Cash. “The engines were running out in seconds because there was no water, if there was water it wouldn't have got so out of control. They were bringing in tanks, they were bringing in water tanks. We've lost everything, because they couldn't tell us where the water supply was.”
Eventually a single fire hydrant was found and there was only one for the whole site. It wasn’t a big red iron thing like you see in the films and cartoons, it was instead a hose connection set about six foot down in a brick lined pit on one of the plots yards, which was covered by a rusty iron nondescript hatch, but at the time of going to press, the Travellers Times does not know whether it was used by the fire services or not, and the ambiguous press response from Hertfordshire County Council leaves us no wiser.
A spokesperson from the Council did tell us that the “hydrants” on the site were tested by “Hydrant Inspectors” in Autumn, 2024. Yet so far only one hydrant has been found… So where are the others? Are there any others? And what's the point of inspecting a fire hydrant if - as the residents say - the fire and rescue services can't find it in the crucial window of opportunity before the fire becomes out of control?
The evacuated residents are now in limbo with no end in sight, the hotel where they are is noisy and busy and not suitable for families with young children and those with disabilities and special needs, they have nowhere to cook – and they must pay for this themselves.
"You've got children in this hotel that have disabilities and they are severely affected," says Ms Cash. "You need to write all this in it your article. The children are severely affected by it. We are all severely struggling. We can't breathe in these hotel rooms.”
Despite the main fundraiser that has currently racked up nearly £10K for the victims of the fire, the residents say they have only received a £200 emergency payment for each family from the council so far. Other local organisations have been doing shopping runs and providing shopping vouchers.
Hertfordshire County Council told us that they do not know when and if Ver Meadows will open again until engineers have examined the remaining infrastructure. Hertfordshire County Council, so far, has also not made the report from the initial fire investigation – which concluded yesterday - available to the residents, their advocates, or the press, alongside the findings of another “independent” and “third party” fire investigation which they say will “feed into” the official report from the Hertfordshire Fire Service. That "third party" fire investigation has now concluded as well.
Meanwhile fear and horror reigns among the residents on the rest of the Hertfordshire Traveller sites (the Travellers Times is in touch with residents from other sites), which are overcrowded and, residents say, accidents waiting to happen.
There are many things that could be been done to stop the fire spreading from a single plot on the other sites (because, let's face it, it’s too late for Ver Meadows); These include mains run linked fire alarms to the local fire station, fire walls between plots, site infrastructure sorted so the chalets don’t have to be so close together, rubbish and weeds kept clear, visible and understandable instructions of what to do in the case of a fire, responsible people (fire wardens) appointed to each site, visible fire points and hydrants, Gypsy and Traveller Service officers on emergency call 24/7; but all that costs both goodwill and money – and when cash-strapped councils feel the pinch, services and improvements for their income generating Traveller sites will almost always be last on the spending list.
Trust is also going to have to be rebuilt between Herts County Council Gypsy and Traveller Services and the residents of its remaining Traveller sites and that will mean a radical restructuring of how the Service operates.
It’s indicative that the Traveller residents in Hertfordshire County Council managed sites refer to the Gypsy and Traveller Services operatives as ‘wardens’ – aren’t ‘wardens’ the people who run prisons?
Mike Doherty for Travellers Times News
(Top photo is sourced from a screenshot – Ms Cash's plot is one of the ones opposite the fire engine3)
* Ms Cash names senior Gypsy Traveller Services staff, however, the Travellers Times has a policy of not naming council officials below the rank of Chief Executive Officers. The Chief Executive Officer of Hertfordshire of Hertfordshire County Council is Angie Ridgewell and ultimately the buck stops with her. Luckily no one died or was seriously injured. Angie Ridgwell needs to step in and take a long hard look at her Council's Gypsy and Traveller Services - and get a grip.
**Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service uses the same press office as Hertfordshire County Council – which is unusual as most fire services run their own – and the Travellers Times will go back to them with more questions and for confirmation that their press response has been signed off by a senior fire fighter with knowledge of the incident, and not just a low-ranking council official.
Read more on the mismanagement of Hertfordshire County Council’s Traveller sites here: ‘A toxic silo’ – Herts Council Gypsy and Traveller Services team embroiled in controversy | Travellers Times