A FIRE in Dingestow destroyed three barns and their contents on Tuesday 7th April.

The blaze at New House Farm began at around 12.40pm and the fire brigade was called immediately. Seven crews, along with two bowsers (large water tanks) were needed to stop the fire, but the barns had already been destroyed.

Inside were hay, straw and farm machinery, and the provisional cause suspected by the fire brigade is that a possible machinery fault set the fire going.

Fire crews were at the farm for around 12 hours, leaving between 1 to 1.30am.

Farm owner Adrian Smith said that unfortunately one cow died because of the fire. A number of cows were in calving pens and they panicked.

The animals were eventually coaxed out, but by that time, one had succumbed to the heat. A total of six cows have now died or aborted because of the stress and smoke inhalation.

Adrian said: "It was only the hard work and expertise of the fire crews that kept it from spreading further.

"The farm office and all the paperwork has been destroyed, the cows are undercover but without an ideal amount of space and we've lost a lot of essential machinery.

"We've been very lucky with the amount of help from friends and neighbours.

"They've offered to lend us equipment, hay, straw – everyone's been very kind and we're very grateful."