THE manager of a Chinese takeaway in Trowbridge is lamenting the loss of his some of his late father’s possessions after the shed that they were kept in were destroyed by a fire.

Firefighters from Trowbridge, Westbury and Melksham used one main jet and a hose reel jet to extinguish the flames that were spreading from the backyard of China Garden in Newtown just before 2pm on Friday.

Manager Simon Wong said that along with the damaged storage and containers, his late father’s bee keeping equipment, that he had intended to use in the near future, was destroyed in the blaze.

“It is sad that this has happened because the bee keeping equipment belonged to my dad. I hope that the fire was not malicious,” he said.

“My family have run this place for 43 years and this is the first time this has happened. I was out at the time and I got a call from a neighbour. The fire crews did a great job. I do not know how much it will cost to replace. Luckily nobody was hurt.”

Nearby R S Motors had to move several of their cars from their showroom as the flames threatened to spread to the site.

The cause remains under investigation and is currently unknown.