Published: Thursday, 8th November, 2007 09:30
Fire bugs strike at another farm
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FIREFIGHTERS spent nearly seven hours tackling a fire which destroyed 100 tonnes of baled straw – the latest in a series of serious farm fires in the county.
A fire crew from Tranent attended Penston Farm, near Macmerry, at 7pm last Thursday after a member of the public alerted owner Duncan Orr that bales were alight in one of his fields.
Mr Orr said: “In this district you get used to things like this happening, which isn’t right.”
The Tranent crew was relieved later that night by a team from Haddington, and the flames were finally extinguished using muckhawks and hose reels by 1.50am the following day.
Mr Orr, whose family has owned the 500-acre farm for the past 40 years, assisted firefighters by breaking up the bales of straw using a forklift.
Police officers attended and closed the B6363 road between Penston and Pencaitland until 2am on the Friday.
A police spokesman confirmed that the incident was being investigated as a malicious fire raising.
The straw bales lost in the fire are believed to be worth many thousands of pounds.
Last Thursday’s fire is the fourth serious blaze to hit county farms since September.
A fire at West Adniston Farm, near Macmerry caused thousands of pounds worth of damage when 500 tonnes of baled straw went up in flames on September 29, destroying three farm buildings in the process.
And, during a weekend in early October, two other farms were targeted by fireraisers. Two hundred tonnes of straw set alight at Blackcastle Farm, Innerwick on October 5 set owners back £10,000.
And Wintonhill Farm, Pencaitland faced losses of more than £100,000 when fire gutted three barns and 150 tonnes of baled straw on October 6.
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