Listen to this article:A small fire was started by an exploding battery inside an electronic bingo board at the Isle of Wight’s largest bingo venue earlier this week.
Leo Leisure’s Bingo venue, on Star Street, Ryde, was forced to phone the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service just before midday on Tuesday, 2 July, after a digital tablet used for bingo caught fire when charging.
According to Adam Widdowson, one of the venue’s co-managers, the fire started after the battery inside the tablet “exploded”.
After phoning the fire brigade, the fast-acting staff used a foam fire extinguisher to put out the blaze. However, the fire service still responded in force, sending four crews, two from Newport and one each from both Ryde and Sandown, as well as an aerial ladder platform and a fire officer.
The venue was relatively empty at the time, with just ten staff and customers present, and they were quickly evacuated.
Widdowson added, “If no one had been there at the time, the fire could’ve spread, but it was a small fire and was put out very quickly indeed. It will be business as usual when we open tonight.”
Sure enough, after the firefighters had ventilated the venue, the bingo sessions were able to resume.
Leo Leisure is the largest independent bingo operator on the South Coast of England. It has bingo halls in Eastleigh, Ryde, Eastbourne, Southampton, and Weymouth. You might recognise the last town’s name – this spring, we reported on Weymouth Woman Hits £50k Bingo jackpot at Leo Leisure venue.
It is a family-run business set up in 1985 by Peter Brown and his wife, Janice. Prior to purchasing the Shaftesbury Bingo club in Portsmouth from Mecca Bingo, the two had worked as managers for Ladbroke Bingo. They then opened a second club in Eastleigh in 1994 before adding the bingo club in Ryde in 2007.
The Ryde club, where this week’s fire occurred, is managed by their younger son Duncan Brown, and the company also runs the next-door Commodore Cinema. Their eldest son, Peter, runs Leo Leisure in Eastbourne as well as Leo’s Play Den, which is a soft play centre that opened in 2012.
Most recently, the Weymouth club opened and at all venues, they aim to deliver “Value for Money Bingo”.
When the building is not in danger of burning down, there is plenty going on at Leo Leisure Bingo Ryde. There are special events multiple times a week, including free Sunday lunches for players, bingo sessions with boosted prize money, free bingo sessions, and more.
The club opens at 11:15 am every day, except Saturdays when it opens at 10:30 am. There are multiple sessions each day from midday until 9:30 pm and the ticket prices are very reasonable. Impressively, last month Leo Leisure Bingo paid out more than £150,000 in prize money.
Visitors to the club will find a menu of delicious-looking food, including classics, such as fish and chips and jacket potatoes. At the same time, the adjoining cinema has multiple screenings of the latest releases each day, making it a convenient and enjoyable accompaniment to the bingo.
Rather than burn down the house, Leo Leisure Bingo would rather people were playing for a full house. If you don’t live on the Isle of Wight but you would like to join the action, then you can do so at Leo Leisure’s online bingo site.
They offer all new members a 100% first deposit bonus of £20 and members can enjoy a range of bingo rooms offering some fantastic prizes. In addition to 90 and 75-ball bingo, there is an excellent collection of online slots as well as regular promotions.
Thankfully, the fire incident was only minor and hopefully, Leo Leisure will be entertaining bingo fans, both online and offline, for many years to come.
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