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54-488: Eastbourne Pier is a seaside pleasure pier in Eastbourne , East Sussex , on the south coast of England . The proposal for a pier was first mooted at the end of 1863, and highly favoured by the town's major landowner, William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire . It was to have been 1000 feet in length and, at a cost of £12,000, would have been situated at the end of the town's grandest avenue, Devonshire Place. However,

108-436: A gender reveal party which utilized a smoke bomb which is categorized as unsafe pyrotechnics. The El Dorado fire burned over a 71-day period, destroyed 20 structures and resulted in one firefighter fatality, for which the couple hosting the party were charged with involuntary manslaughter . The Esperanza Fire ultimately resulted in the death of firefighter Charles "Charlie" Morton, who became trapped while attempting to fight

162-561: A weapon of war against civilians. From the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état to August 2022, military forces committed arson on 28,434 houses in the country. While the Scottish legal system has no offence known as arson statutorily defined, there are many offences that are used to charge those with acts that would normally constitute arson in other nations. Events constituting arson in English and Welsh law might be dealt with as one or more of

216-636: A 60-metre (200 ft) high bungee jump over the North Sea waves. The present pier is a successor of an earlier pier, which was completed in 1901 but in 1943 destroyed by the German occupation forces. The first recorded pier in England was Ryde Pier , opened in 1814 on the Isle of Wight , as a landing stage to allow ferries to and from the mainland to berth. It is still used for this purpose today. It also had

270-406: A comrade who had fallen from a cableway which crossed a 30-foot gap in the structure. Various traditional pier theatres were built over the years but after the last one was destroyed by fire in 1970, it was replaced by a nightclub and bar which remain to this day. On the landward half of the pier stands a fish and chip kiosk, an amusement arcade and a fast food outlet. Further out, as well as

324-520: A conviction and penalty for wildfire arson. Some states, such as California, prosecute the lesser offense of " reckless burning " when the fire is set recklessly as opposed to willfully and maliciously. The study of the causes is the subject of fire investigation . A recent example of a reckless burning offense is the El Dorado fire which took place in 2020 in California. This fire was caused by

378-401: A fire on 30 July 2014 that ripped through a large amount of the central domed building. Sussex Police initially said that the fire was not to be treated suspiciously, though later the police said arson was suspected. East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service deployed up to 80 officers to tackle the blaze, which allegedly started in wood panelling in the walls of the games arcade. After fighting

432-642: A leisure function in the past, with the pier head once containing a pavilion, and there are still refreshment facilities today. The oldest cast iron pier in the world is Town Pier, Gravesend , in Kent , which opened in 1834. However, it is not recognised by the National Piers Society as being a seaside pier. Following the building of the world's first seaside pier at Ryde, the pier became fashionable at seaside resorts in England and Wales during

486-666: A linear littoral quayside, and such piers are usually much shorter. Typically each pier would carry a single transit shed the length of the pier, with ships berthing bow or stern in to the shore. Some major ports consisted of large numbers of such piers lining the foreshore, classic examples being the Hudson River frontage of New York , or the Embarcadero in San Francisco . The advent of container shipping , with its need for large container handling spaces adjacent to

540-733: A method of homicide, as was the case in California of Raymond Lee Oyler and in Texas of Cameron Todd Willingham . After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, the United States started a National Fire Prevention Week in order to educate the people on ways to prevent fires, minimize their damages, and hopefully drastically decrease casualties. Fire Prevention Week campaigns includes various information on safe cooking practices pertaining to grilling, microwaving, and cooking on

594-477: A new pier was built in 1933. It remained till the present day, but was partially transformed and modernized in 1999–2004. In Nieuwpoort, Belgium there is a pleasure pier on both sides of the river IJzer . Scheveningen , the coastal resort town of The Hague , boasts the largest pier in the Netherlands , completed in 1961. A crane, built on top of the pier's panorama tower, provides the opportunity to make

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648-566: A pier has two decks. Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier in Galveston , Texas has a roller coaster, 15 rides, carnival games and souvenir shops. Early pleasure piers were of complete timber construction, as was with Margate which opened in 1824. The first iron and timber built pleasure pier Margate Jetty , opened in 1855. Margate pier was wrecked by a storm in January 1978 and not repaired. The longest iron pleasure pier still remaining

702-456: A pier presents a set of different circumstances to fishing from the shore or beach, as you do not need to cast out into the deeper water. This being the case there are specific fishing rigs that have been created specifically for pier fishing which allow for the direct access to deeper water. In Blankenberge a first pleasure pier was built in 1894. After its destruction in the World War I ,

756-565: A stove. During World War II arson was a much higher concern in the United States . There was a severe lack of firefighters due to the fact most of the men were overseas to fight the war. There were few men left behind to help combat forest fires. For example, during WW II in Eldora, Iowa a fire chief reported that his regular membership shrank from 21 to 9 men and their fire fighting force recruited retired members and new members to fill

810-413: A variety of offences such as wilful fire-raising , culpable and reckless conduct , vandalism or other offences depending on the circumstances of the event. The more serious offences (in particular wilful fire-raising and culpable and reckless conduct) can incur a sentence of life imprisonment . Ireland differentiates how it charges arson not by degree but rather by what is being destroyed and if anyone

864-647: Is at Southend-on-Sea , Essex , and extends 1.3 miles (2.1 km) into the Thames Estuary . The longest pier on the West Coast of the US is the Santa Cruz Wharf , with a length of 2,745 feet (837 m). Providing a walkway out to sea, pleasure piers often include amusements and theatres as part of their attractions. Such a pier may be unroofed, closed, or partly open and partly closed. Sometimes

918-438: Is charged in five degrees. Arson in the first degree is a Class A-1 felony and requires the intent to burn the building with a person inside using an explosive incendiary device. In New York, the criminal charge of arson includes a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. In California, a conviction for arson of property that is not one's own is a felony punishable by up to three years in state prison. Aggravated arson, which carries

972-408: Is from 1864. English Common Law defines arson as "the malicious burning of the dwelling of another." This definition has four elements: Many U.S. state legal systems and the legal systems of several other countries divide arson into degrees, depending sometimes on the value of the property but more commonly on its use and whether the crime was committed in the day or night. Many statutes vary

1026-477: Is the one at Southend. First opened as a wooden pier in 1829, it was reconstructed in iron and completed in 1889. In a 2006 UK poll, the public voted the seaside pier onto the list of icons of England. Many piers are built for the purpose of providing boatless anglers access to fishing grounds that are otherwise inaccessible. Many "Free Piers" are available in larger harbors which differ from private piers. Free Piers are often primarily used for fishing. Fishing from

1080-430: Is to commit insurance fraud . In such cases, a person destroys their own property by burning it and then lies about the cause in order to collect against their insurance policy . A person who commits arson is referred to as an arsonist, or a serial arsonist if the person has committed arson several times. Arsonists normally use an accelerant (such as gasoline or kerosene ) to ignite, propel, and direct fires, and

1134-627: The Victorian era , peaking in the 1860s with 22 being built in that decade. A symbol of the typical British seaside holiday, by 1914, more than 100 pleasure piers were located around the UK coast. Regarded as being among the finest Victorian architecture, there are still a significant number of seaside piers of architectural merit still standing, although some have been lost, including Margate , two at Brighton in East Sussex , one at New Brighton in

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1188-634: The Wirral and three at Blackpool in Lancashire . Two piers, Brighton's now derelict West Pier and Clevedon Pier , were Grade 1 listed . The Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare is the only pier in the world linked to an island. The National Piers Society gives a figure of 55 surviving seaside piers in England and Wales. Arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property . Although

1242-418: The detection and identification of ignitable liquid residues is an important part of fire investigations. Pyromania is an impulse control disorder characterized by the pathological setting of fires. Most acts of arson are not committed by pyromaniacs. The term derives from Law French arsoun (late 13th century), from Old French arsion , from Late Latin ārsiōnem "a burning," ( acc. ) from

1296-507: The health of sandy beaches and navigation channels . Pleasure piers were first built in Britain during the early 19th century. The earliest structures were Ryde Pier , built in 1813/4, Trinity Chain Pier near Leith, built in 1821, Brighton Chain Pier , built in 1823. and Margate Jetty 1823/24 originally a timber built pier. Only the oldest of these piers still remains. At that time,

1350-704: The 1960s but was restored in 2003 with a new stairway built to provide access. Paddle steamers (such as the PS Brighton Queen and the PS Devonia ) operated by P and A Campbell ran trips from the pier along the south coast, to the Isle of Wight and across the Channel to Boulogne from 1906 until the outbreak of the Second World War . These were resumed after the war, but the paddle steamers were gradually withdrawn from service. In 1957,

1404-731: The English counterparts, 63 of the 1972 Ordinance provides a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, and s 60(3) of the Ordinance requires that if the damage is by fire the offence should be charged as arson. In the Burmese legal system, arson is considered "mischief by fire" under sections 435 and 436 of the Myanmar Penal Code and punishable by fine and imprisonment. The statutes were last amended on 1 July 2016, and made arson on houses and buildings punishable with up to 20 years in prison. The Burmese military has long used arson as

1458-635: The San Jose Fire Department. According to a 2019 Press Release from the California Department of Insurance , Tyler and Kim Chen, Ha Nguyen, Sandy Ngo, Duyen Pham, and Trang Huynh were all convicted with various degrees of arson and insurance fraud. Tyler Chen was convicted with five separate counts of arson and two separate counts of insurance fraud in Santa Clara County in 2018. Tyler Chen's wife, Kim Chen,

1512-417: The act of arson typically involves buildings , the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles , watercraft , or forests . The crime is typically classified as a felony , with instances involving risk to human life or property carrying a stricter penalty. Arson that results in death can be further prosecuted as manslaughter or murder . A common motive for arson

1566-468: The alleged offense. First degree arson generally occurs when people are harmed or killed in the course of the fire, while second degree arson occurs when significant destruction of property occurs. While usually a felony , arson may also be prosecuted as a misdemeanor , " criminal mischief ", or " destruction of property ." Burglary also occurs, if the arson involved a "breaking and entering". A person may be sentenced to death if arson occurred as

1620-446: The cause in order to collect against their insurance policy . An example of insurance fraud being the motivating factor for an act of arson is the case for Operation Firebird . A married couple and 4 co-conspirators were arrested and convicted with arson and insurance fraud after a string of home, business, and warehouse fires which took place between 2014 and 2018 were exposed as acts of arson. Using chicken left in boiling frying oil,

1674-429: The club there is a cafe , a restaurant , a glassblower , a clothes shop and an ice cream shop. The tower at the end of the pier is often used as a viewing point during the annual air show . For more than a decade, the pier played host to the town's annual Birdman competition, which saw competitors jump into the sea in home-made costumes to see who could 'fly' the furthest. In May 2009, the listed building status of

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1728-481: The convicted criminals would make fire seem like a cooking accident. Then, the group committed insurance fraud by filing insurance claims for the cost of the building, as well as, smoke-damaged goods to claim fire damages for insurance payouts. The group's scheme claimed a reported $ 4 million and ended when authorities were tipped off as to where the location of the next planned incident would take place. Police then performed an investigation dubbed Operation Firebird with

1782-454: The degree of the crime according to the criminal intent of the accused. Some US states use other degrees of arson, such as "fourth" and "fifth" degree, while some states do not categorize arson by any degree. For example, in the state of Tennessee , arson is categorized as "arson" and "aggravated arson." A common motive for arson is to commit insurance fraud . In such cases, a person destroys their own property by burning it and then lies about

1836-699: The destroyed part and died hours later. The pier appears in the Agatha Christie's Poirot episodes " Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan " (although the story is set in Brighton ) and " Curtain: Poirot's Last Case ". It was also featured in the 2001 film Last Orders and the 2008 film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging . The 2010 film Brighton Rock used Eastbourne Pier to stand in for Brighton's Palace Pier . Eastbourne Town FC supporters club "Pier Pressure" are named in homage to

1890-607: The destruction is by fire, the offence is charged as arson; s.4 of the Act provides a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for conviction under s.1 whether or not the offence is charged as arson. In Hong Kong, the common law offence was abolished by s 67 of the Crimes Ordinance 1971 (Part VIII of which, as amended by Crimes (Amendment) Ordinance 1972, mirrored the English Criminal Damage Act 1971). Like

1944-430: The final season was operated by a motor vessel. During the Second World War , part of the decking was removed and machine guns were installed in the theatre providing a useful point from which to repel any attempted enemy landings and a Bofors anti-aircraft gun was sited midway along the length of the pier. In December 1942, an exploding mine caused considerable damage to the pier and nearby hotels; it had been tied to

1998-403: The fire through the night, fire officers eliminated the main hotspots and saved two-thirds of the pier with the main arcade being the only large building affected. The outer pavilion was not reached by the fire, which came just two weeks before Eastbourne's largest tourist event on the seafront, the airshow Airbourne . A few days after the airshow, a 44-year-old workman on the pier fell through

2052-554: The fire. The DA of California considered arson charges for the family members as they were deemed negligent with regard to fire safety. In English law , arson was a common law offence (except for the offence of arson in royal dockyards ) dealing with the criminal destruction of buildings by fire. The common law offence was abolished by s.11(1) of the Criminal Damage Act 1971 . The 1971 Act makes no distinction as to mode of destruction except that s.1(3) requires that if

2106-599: The fishing and cargo industries and serves as a port for large cruise ships in the area. Many other working piers have been demolished, or remain derelict, but some have been recycled as pleasure piers. The best known example of this is Pier 39 in San Francisco . At Southport and the Tweed River on the Gold Coast in Australia , there are piers that support equipment for a sand bypassing system that maintains

2160-453: The introduction of steamships and railways for the first time permitted mass tourism to dedicated seaside resorts . The large tidal ranges at many such resorts meant that passengers arriving by pleasure steamer could use a pier to disembark safely. Also, for much of the day, the sea was not visible from the shore and the pleasure pier permitted holidaymakers to promenade over and alongside the sea at all times. The world's longest pleasure pier

2214-520: The missing positions during the war. Although there were few attempts to burn U.S. forests, it continued to be a big concern due to the potential detrimental effects. This concern for arson attempts led to the rise of Smokey Bear who was the face of fire prevention and fire safety measures. Although the intention of Smokey Bear's persona is to encourage fire safety , Smokey shares a message of fire prevention which includes accidental fires that can sometimes be legally charged as arson. In New York, arson

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2268-465: The most severe punishment for arson, is punishable by 10 years to life in state prison. A well-known example of arson which took place in California is the Esperanza Fire . Raymond Lee Oyler was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to death for a 2006 fire in southern California that led to the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters; he was the first U.S. citizen to receive such

2322-461: The pier stretching far enough off shore to reach deep water at low tide. Such piers provided an economical alternative to impounded docks where cargo volumes were low, or where specialist bulk cargo was handled, such as at coal piers . The other form of working pier, often called the finger pier, was built at ports with smaller tidal ranges. Here the principal advantage was to give a greater available quay length for ships to berth against compared to

2376-450: The pier was upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*. Six Piers Limited placed Eastbourne Pier up for sale in 2009, with an asking price of £5.5 million. The sale price included a tea room, two bars, an amusement arcade and a nightclub. On 21 October 2015, Abid Gulzar, a local hotelier, bought the pier for an undisclosed price, although it is believed to be less than £5.5 million. The pier was then fully repaired and reopened. The pier suffered

2430-623: The pier. Pier Piers have been built for several purposes, and because these different purposes have distinct regional variances, the term pier tends to have different nuances of meaning in different parts of the world. Thus in North America and Australia , where many ports were, until recently, built on the multiple pier model, the term tends to imply a current or former cargo-handling facility. In contrast, in Europe , where ports more often use basins and river-side quays than piers,

2484-603: The piers raise and lower with the tide along with the boats tied to them. This prevents a situation where lines become overly taut or loose by rising or lowering tides. An overly taut or loose tie-line can damage boats by pulling them out of the water or allowing them so much leeway that they bang forcefully against the sides of the pier. Working piers were built for the handling of passengers and cargo onto and off ships or (as at Wigan Pier ) canal boats. Working piers themselves fall into two different groups. Longer individual piers are often found at ports with large tidal ranges , with

2538-399: The project was delayed and finally abandoned in favour of the present site at the junction of Grand and Marine Parades, thus creating the easterly end of what amounts to a shingle bay. The pier interrupts what would otherwise have been a ribbon development of buildings – to the west, high-class hotels, with modest family hotels and boarding houses to the east. The Eastbourne Pier Company

2592-404: The sea-bed allowing the whole structure to move during rough weather. It is roughly 300 metres (1000 ft) long. A domed 400-seater pavilion was constructed at a cost of £250 at the seaward end in 1888. A 1000-seater theatre, bar, camera obscura and office suite replaced this in 1899/1901. At the same time, two saloons were built midway along the pier. The camera obscura fell into disuse in

2646-504: The shipping berths, has made working piers obsolete for the handling of general cargo, although some still survive for the handling of passenger ships or bulk cargos. One example, is in use in Progreso, Yucatán , where a pier extends more than 4 miles into the Gulf of Mexico , making it the longest pier in the world. The Progreso Pier supplies much of the peninsula with transportation for

2700-424: The stanchions by the local police, who were under the mistaken impression that it was fitted with a safety device. In 1943, a detachment of Royal Canadian Engineers fixed camouflage netting over the stanchions to conceal flotillas of small vessels, such as wooden assault landing craft. A George Medal and a British Empire Medal were awarded to two of the engineers who dived into the sea on 3 February 1943 to rescue

2754-604: The term is principally associated with the image of a Victorian cast iron pleasure pier. However, the earliest piers pre-date the Victorian age . Piers can be categorized into different groupings according to the principal purpose. However, there is considerable overlap between these categories. For example, pleasure piers often also allow for the docking of pleasure steamers and other similar craft, while working piers have often been converted to leisure use after being rendered obsolete by advanced developments in cargo-handling technology. Many piers are floating piers, to ensure that

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2808-413: The verb ardēre , "to burn." "Malicious burning of property," 1670s, from Anglo-French arsoun (late 13c.), Old French arsion, from Late Latin arsionem (nominative arsio) "a burning," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin ardere "to burn" (from PIE root *as- "to burn, glow"). The Old English term was bærnet , lit. "burning"; and Edward Coke has indictment of burning (1640). Arsonist

2862-471: Was convicted with two counts of insurance fraud in Santa Clara county. In the United States , the common law elements of arson are often varied in different jurisdictions. For example, the element of "dwelling" is no longer required in most states, and arson occurs by the burning of any real property without consent or with unlawful intent. Arson is prosecuted with attention to degree of severity in

2916-467: Was registered in April 1865 with a capital of £15,000 and on 18 April 1866 work began. It was opened by Lord Edward Cavendish on 13 June 1870, although it was not actually completed until two years later. On New Year's Day 1877 the landward half was swept away in a storm. It was rebuilt at a higher level, creating a drop towards the end of the pier. The pier is effectively built on stilts that rest in cups on

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