Last week's Heathrow warehouse fire has wrecked several thousand pounds worth of equipment belonging to the Canadian Alpine ski team, it has been revealed.

Warehouse fire
The blaze, which occurred last Friday afternoon, is believed to have caused substantial disruption for the Canadian Alpine team's planned training camp in Coronet Peak, with around £100,000 worth of equipment lost in the fire.

The fire occurred at a Servisair warehouse at Heathrow which stores large cargo shipments in readiness for transportation.

However, the Canadian team remain determined to press ahead with plans for the training camp, and have alreasy began to invest in replacement equipment.

Training disruption
Gary Allen, the Canadian skiing chief, commented on the fire:

"This has come as quite a shock to us but we've decided to push ahead with this important training camp.

"Literally everything that we had for the camp, all the skis, electronic timing, communications and computer equipment has been lost. So at this point we are starting from scratch and working our way toward what is needed to make this training camp happen."

He continued: "Obviously what we are mobilising now, and require the most, is to replace the equipment and supplies that we lost as quickly as possible so that our skiers can focus on training..