THE ‘overwhelming’ support of the community has given those behind a Launceston business devastated by fire the determination to get back on their feet.

The Post last week reported that a fire took hold in the early hours of Tuesday morning at Downtons Dry Cleaning in Launceston.

A passerby reported smoke in the area of Exeter Street to the emergency services at around 3.34am on Tuesday, October 11, with another resident reporting the windows of the laundry were blackened and felt hot.

After the fire, the business took to Facebook to apologise to its customers, and wrote: “Three years of building up a business that has quite literally been destroyed in what seems to be minutes.”

Downtons Dry Cleaning had been in the running for a ‘dry cleaner of the year’ award last year, and the business was awarded the title of ‘best newcomer in the UK’ at the 2015 ‘LADAs — laundry and drycleaning awards’.

They are through to the finals this year in the category of ‘best dry cleaner’, and wait to hear the result in November.

There was an outpouring of messages of support for them following the incident on social media.

A week on from the incident, Jane Downton, of Downtons Dry Cleaning, said of the support: “It’s been overwhelming and really given me the determination to get back on top.”

The fire affected what Jane described as the middle, production shop. She said: “It was devastating. It was a complete wipe-out. I felt sick.”

She said they are currently operating from the third shop ‘as best we can’. While Jane imagines it could take two or three months to get fully back up and running, they have managed to do some dry cleaning for hotels since the incident.

Jane added: “We are servicing our hotels as it stands. The White Hart were in shock on Friday when we delivered to them!

“Customers have been very understanding. We have a claims form in place on our Facebook. Obviously they will be compensated for what they have lost.

“We employ quite a few people too, they have been anxious to know what’s going on. Two people are working now as we speak — it’s early days.

“It’s going to take a bit more than Jif to clean that place I’m afraid. We’ve got to get up and running for all those people who supported us. The only way is up.”

Any customers who had items being processed at the time are asked to fill out the customer claim form before November 30.

To access the form, find Downtons Dry Cleaning on Facebook, or go to downtonsdrycleaning.co.uk/claims