On November 5, 2013, a normal Bonfire night turned into a horror show for a Kent high street. The Webb family – well-known and much-loved shopkeepers for more than a century – were forced to watch as their life’s work was reduced to a charred wreck.

What followed was a story of passion, endurance and a community’s love, as Alex Jee reports 10 years on…

Walking past Webbs of Tenterden, you would never know of the devastation that had once befallen the shop and surrounding buildings on a cold November night.

Rebuilt to perfection, the stainless glass frontage of the shop opens into an immaculate interior offering a menagerie of homeware.

But exactly 10 years ago today, the Webbs were forced to watch their livelihoods go up in smoke as a fire incinerated the inside of the store and spread to a neighbouring cafe and book shop.

A decade on, company director Carol Webb remembers the dramatic events as if they happened yesterday.

“It was my partner’s son’s birthday and we were walking down the town when my partner turned and said to me ‘look at that glow, it must be a bonfire’,” she recalled.

“Then, as we got down the town, people were running out of their shops saying ‘Carol, Carol, hurry – your shop’s on fire!”

The blaze, which would later be attributed to a blowtorch during building works, took hold of the shop and spread through the roof to the adjoining Waterstones and Cafe Rouge.

“We couldn’t believe it – by the time we got down there there was just a red glow in the sky and all we could do was stand there and watch it get worse and worse,” said Carol.

“It was unbelievable. I don’t think at that point we really took on the full extent of the devastation we would find later.

“The fire service did everything they could but said they had never seen anything like it.”

The blaze broke out just as Kent firefighters were gearing up for one of their busiest evenings of the year - bonfire night.

Among those to alert the emergency services was Robin Hughes, who said he at first thought the blaze was a controlled fire to celebrate November 5.

Speaking in the aftermath, he told KentOnline: "I walked down the side alley and the smoke was intensifying and round the back. I could see flames so rang the fire brigade.

"As the flames intensified, sparks were blowing towards the houses at the back and I realised the extent of the danger to other buildings.

"I phoned 999 again and explained that they needed backup given the risks. Within about 10 minutes the first fire engine appeared, and then more arrived.”

According to the fire service, the temperature in the shop spiked to more than 1,200 degrees; hot enough to melt saucepans and cast-iron pots, and destroy the entire stock within the shop.

Shop manager Darren Smith remained at the scene until early the following morning. He described the moment he was allowed in to see the impact of the fire.

“When you get the first phone call, you think it’s going to be a bin fire – then you get up here and see it and your heart sinks,” he recalls.

“I had more adrenaline at that moment as I was inside the cordon getting keys, talking to police, and so on.

“I was here until four in the morning and it was deathly quiet after the crowds had gone. When you are sitting there looking at something you’ve put your heart and soul into and it’s not there anymore, it’s devastating.”

What followed was about 22 months of frantic activity to restore the shop to beyond its original best, after the community rallied around the affected family, who themselves refused to be crestfallen.

Carol said: “Financially it was catastrophic, but everyone was absolutely wonderful – we opened pop-up shops in our other two shops in town within two weeks.

“Our stock suppliers were so understanding; they gave us deliveries and only took payment when we were able to [pay].

“And customers were just absolutely wonderful. The whole of Tenterden was so supportive – it makes you realise how wonderful it is to live in this sort of community.”

Indeed, just under two years later, a queue formed outside the High Street shop for a grand reopening at 11am. Staff unlocked the doors and welcomed customers back inside with a smile and a glass of bubbly.

Waiting for them was quite the transformation, with double the retail space, themed rooms and a lift between the ground and first floors.

It signalled the rebirth of the business, combining the homeware and linens/baby-wear shops, while the family ironmongers stayed separate.

“As it happens, good came out of bad because we ended up with a shop much larger than the one we had before, meaning we’re able to stock and sell a lot more items,” added Carol.

Today, a dramatic shop window display stands proud on the High Street commemorating the fire – and the shop’s dramatic journey since.

The creation of shop mother and daughter pair Susan and Bethany Scullard, it features a number of cuttings from newspapers – most from KentOnline’s sister paper the Kentish Express.

Alongside them are some log books pulled from the charred wreck of the old shop, a memory now a decade old.