A SQUATTER asleep in an empty furniture store fled for his lifewhena raging fire swept through the High Street building.

The man, who regularly used the former Alan’s furniture store to sleep in, was woken by the intense heat and smoke and escaped by jumping to safety from a first floor window.

He flagged down a police car in Market Street and raised the alarm. Sixty firemen with five engines from Bromsgrove, Droitwich and Redditch battled to control the blaze and stop it spreading to nearby buildings.

HEALTH bosses were due to pick the firms to build Bromsgrove’s £7 million community hospital with work on the project starting before Christmas.

The new hospital on the All Saints road site would have 100 beds, with 72 for care of the elderly, and local health boss Ross Spencer said the longawaited project would definitely go ahead.

BROMSGROVE’S MP Sir Hal Miller was strongly attacked in the row over the government’s plans to impose charges for eye and teeth tests. Sir Hal voted in favour of the controversial charges in a crucial Commons debate leading to a narrow victoryoverthe opposition parties who were against charging £10 for an eye test and £3.50 for a dental check up.

Memory Lane is compiled from the papers dating back to the Messenger’s first edition in 1860. The papers are free to view at Bromsgrove Library in Stratford Road.

For more information, call the library on 01905 822722.