Firecrews Tackle Large Blaze At Farm

Around 30 firefighters have been battling a fire at Farmer Palmer's in Poole.

Crews from Poole, Wareham and Hamworthy were called early on Sunday morning (November the 6th).

Fire Control received a 999 call at 00:25hrs and mobilised appliances to the scene.

Incident Commander, Richard Coleman, said:

"A large set of farm buildings measuring a total of approximately 50m x 50m and including some farm machinery are involved in the fire.

"There is also a large amount of straw and timber in some of the outbuildings too which will obviously act as fuel for the fire.

"Luckily no animals are involved and no-one has been injured.

"It is likely that we will be on scene for some time ensuring that the fire is completely extinguished."

Police closed the road and alerted neighbours to stay inside and close windows and doors.

Fire Investigation Officer, Steve Underhill has not ruled out arson following a large spate of barn fires across the county recently but said that in this case, it was most unlikely. He said:

"We won't know what caused the fire until we can get closer tomorrow morning.

"Although we cannot rule out arson, it is very unlikely.

"It is possibly an electrical fire since there was some electrical units being used but again, once we can get closer, we should have a much better idea."

The Palmers had not held any bonfire night or firework activities because of the distress to the animals so that has also been ruled out. Sandra Palmer told Steve Underhill that although the Santa's Grotto had been destroyed by the fire, they wanted to assure visitors that it would be replaced in plenty of time for Christmas.

Fire Safety Officer, Dai Jones, has since carried out an inspection.

He said:

"We have been to the site this morning to carry out an inspection and are assured that the Farmer Palmer's business can open to the public as usual.

"There will be a fire service presence on site throughout the day but this will not have an impact on the day to day running of the public access to the Farm."

Sandra Palmer said:

"I would like to make it clear that the buildings affected were the old farm buildings and therefore this has had no detrimental affect on the visitor attraction itself.

"The only animal that was in any danger was a barn owl and the fire officers checked for me this morning and it has been brought out wet, shocked and cold but alive and hopefully well.

"He has been taken to the bird vets for a checkover and to recover and we are all rooting for him.

"I would like to thank the amazing fire crews who have worked all night to get this under control and give us the best advice possible."