Farmer left feeling "gutted" after fire near Chard destroys barn, hay and campervan

Firefighters battled the blaze on Limekiln Lane, between Cricket St Thomas and Winsham, for five hours last Thursday.

Six fire engines, a water carrier, an incident command unit and an incident support unit were all rushed to the scene at Lue Farm at around 10.15am.

Stephen Taylor, of the Cricket St Thomas estate and tenant at Lue Farm, said: “I was the one who called it in. I was out there and I saw the black smoke pouring off it.

“There was a lot of straw, hay and cattle food that has been damaged. There was also my nephew’s campervan in there for storage.

“We did have some lambs in there but fortunately the weather had been so nice recently that they had been moved out.

“My boat was also in there but the firefighters got that out. It has quite a bit of heat damage, but I don’t know how bad it is yet. There is a similar thing with a tractor that was near.

“We are a bit gutted. The barn and the hay and the van have been totally destroyed.

“We have not had anything like this before at all. We are not sure what caused the fire. It might have been an electrical fault.”

On arrival crews confirmed the barn contained hay and straw, a boat and a tractor.

There was approximately 30 tonnes of hay and straw in the barn. Fire crews used six breathing apparatus, one hose reel jet, one safety jet, two compressed air foam jets, a positive pressure ventilation fan, thermal image camera, carbon monoxide detector and light portable pump to deal with the incident.

Two telehandlers were also called in to remove the straw and hay from the barn. A decontamination zone was also set up. The barn measured approximately 20 metres by 20 metres, and consists of three bays. There was 50 per cent fire damage to the middle bay and 100 per cent smoke damage to the other two bays.

The cause of the fire is believed to be accidental.