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AROUND five hectares of farmland and 60 bales of hay have been destroyed following a large fire in Throop.
Dozens of firefighters from various stations rushed to a cornfield just off Holdenhurst Village Road shortly after 3.45pm on Thursday July 28 after reporting that much of the field was ‘well lit’.
Crews from Springbourne, Hamworthy and two from Poole attended with a water carrier from Poole to tackle the blaze which caused a huge amount of smoke and embers in the air in windy conditions.
Residents watched as firefighters, and even the land farmer, doused the flames with water from multiple vehicles and hand-held hose reel jets.
As you can see, there are several flame hotspots still burning on the ground. The field owner is apparently in this tractor breaking up charred hay bales. @Bournemouthecho pic.twitter.com/EFsIzMNYRV
— Andrew Goldman (@AndrewDailyEcho) July 28, 2022
A man says he only saw two bales of hay burning at first, before the wind picked up and spread the flames across the field “within seconds”.
At one point the fire was dangerously close to a property just across the field from Holdenhurst Village Road. The flames reached the bordering shrubs and also caused significant burn damage to a wooden LV electricity pole.
Fortunately, emergency personnel were able to prevent the fire from spreading further towards the property.
After the larger flames were extinguished and hot spots contained, Incident Commander Chris Mitchell of Springbourne Fire Station told the Echo the cause was accidental. He said: “[The farmer was] using the combine and ran over a splint which caused a spark and just took off. It’s so dry everywhere.
Fire on land just off Holdenhurst Village Road in Throop on 28/07/2022
“Using hose reel jets and two main lines, and a lot of hard work, we surrounded the fire and did our best.
“Due to many incidents in the area, we were running out of resources, so we had to try to conserve water.
“Everyone worked very hard. We worked quickly to prevent it from spreading down the road to the property and to make sure our crews stay as safe as possible – and to whoever gave us cold drinks, we thank you.
Around 5:40 p.m., the crews began to withdraw and returned the reins to the farmer.
