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A fire almost completely destroyed the Exhibition on the afternoon of Sunday September 15th
1996.
The fire is believed to have started due to an electrical fault in the K9 section, which was quite near the console
room. I mean you can't say that it started IN K9 or that it was HIS fault, but EVERYBODY DID!
Nearly everything
was heat and smoke damaged, but some costumes/props like The Terileptil Android from The Visitation, The Nucleus 'of the
Swarm' from The Invisible Enemy, The Robot Cleaner from Paradise Towers and of course K9 (not one of the originals) were
so wrecked that they were almost junked, had it not been for Lorne Martin's idea to use what was left of them in a display section
about the fire itself.
Shortly after the fire when the building was declared safe.
It was re-openned and when visiting
my dear friend Dallas (who was the current care taker) who was terribly upset with the devastation I noticed that it
was as though the Tardis had crash landed and THAT in itself was a sight to behold! Alas it was unbearable for poor Dallas,
the smell and the dirt was everywhere and she actually left shortly afterwards.
The next full time care taker of
the Exhibition was a lovely lady called Shirley whom I worked with a lot and lastly Mark managed the shop and exhibition
until its closure in 2003 and moved upto Blackpool to manage the DR WHO Museum which closed in 2009.
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