MEADOWLANDS in Tavistock was forced to close last Thursday after a piece of roofing timber plunged into the pool during a morning swimming session.
The piece of wood, which was about eight feet long, fell from the roof at about 8.25am, during the ?dawn dippers? session.
Around a dozen people were swimming at the time. Luckily, no-one was hit by the timber, which fell vertically into the pool.
Lifeguards immediately cleared the pool of swimmers and removed the wood from the water.
Rob Whitehead, Meadowlands manager, said: ?We closed the pool straight away; we couldn?t take any chances. We had the environmental health officer and our health and safety manager in straight away.?
Mr Whitehead said he dreaded to think what could have happened if the wood had hit someone. He said the four by one piece of architrave timber fell from the barrel vault, the highest point of the roof. There are about 40 metres of similar pieces on either side of the barrel.
?We do a risk assessment every month, but they are done visually and you can?t actually get up to that height,? said Mr Whitehead.
Mr Whitehead said the pool was closed until Sunday to enable scaffolding to be erected so the architraves could all be replaced.
Meadowlands is owned by West Devon Borough Council, although it is managed by Canons.
Deputy chief executive of the borough council David Inman played down the incident and said the piece of wood was by no means monstrous.
?A risk assessment is carried out regularly but it did not extend up high into the roofspace,? he said. ?Clearly the nails involved had obviously rusted out and the piece of wood fell down.
?As a precaution the pool was closed and the battens removed. They were decorative rather than structural but will be replaced in due course.?