A RESTORATION appeal has been launched to repair priceless books and documents damaged in Sunday's fire at the Callington Heritage Centre which has left the community 'devastated'. Five firecrews from across South East Cornwall battled the fire at 8am which ripped through the mezzanine floor and the roof of the building at Liskeard Road, but as yet the damage to the heritage collection has not been quantified. Members of the town council, which owns the building, together with firefighters, spent most of the day salvaging items, including coins, medals, deeds, maps, books and posters from the building which was reopened seven months ago after a £55,000 restoration project funded by the Heritage Lottery. Music and uniforms owned by Callington Town Band, who use part of the building for rehearsals, were also ruined in the blaze, but it is believed that most of the instruments were saved. Town council clerk and chairman of the Callington Heritage Centre Lynda Small said she was 'gutted' by the fire but amazingly most of the restoration work was intact. 'Most of the re-pointing on the building and stone around the windows plus the new entrance was not damaged,' she said. 'It could have been a lot worse — the fire brigade were amazing. We were lucky that the flames went straight up into the roof and almost bypassed the archive collection.' Mrs Small said a large majority of the artefacts were removed from the building but as yet the extent of heat, smoke and water damage was unknown. 'We are not sure how much we will have to pay out for specialist repairs to some of the books and we have started a restoration appeal so if anyone wants to donate some money we would be most grateful.' Town councillor Jeremy Gist, who helped in the aftermath along with Callington portreeve Andrew Long, praised the fire brigade and members of the St John Ambulance who worked 'like Trojans'. 'The damage was extensive — it was devastating but the co-operation from the fire brigade was superb. They were brilliant,' he said. 'The building had been looking really nice and a tremendous amount of time and effort had been put in reorganising and recataloging everything. 'It is a major loss to the community but this is Callington and we will get it sorted and get it up and running again as soon as we can.' Callington fire station office Kevin Rookley said an investigation had been launched into the fire but it was not believed to be suspicious. 'The fire was brought under control within two hours but the weather particularly the wind did not help at all. 'Within a matter of minutes the fire went up through the roof and completely destroyed it.' Tiles falling off the roof are a particular hazard and Callington town council is asking people not to go onto the site to look at the damaged building because it is 'extremely dangerous'.