Firefighters tackle huge barn fire in St Nicholas

FIREFIGHTERS spent almost seven hours tackling a hay barn fire in St Nicholas on Sunday.

Trellys Y Coed raised the alarm just before 9am, with crews from Fishguard, St Davids and Haverfordwest in attendance.

Firefighters tackled the fire using an aerial appliance, two ground monitors, three main jets, a water bowser, and two agricultural bowsers.

Neighbouring farmers provided assistance in withdrawing ‘damped down’ material and moving it to an area where it could be spread and extinguished.

The fire resulted in the destruction of approximately 300 bales of straw and two agricultural trailers. The exact cause is currently under investigation but is believed to be accidental.

Firefighters remained at the incident until 3.41pm.

Head of Response for Pembrokeshire Command Dai Swan said: “Fires of this kind present significant challenges to extinguish due to their deep seated nature. The only way to successfully extinguish them is pull them out and douse each section thoroughly, which the crews successfully did in this case with help of the local community.

“This is a perfect example of a close knit community effort. We are extremely grateful to those who gave of their time and resources to help bring this incident to resolution.”

Mr Swan added: “While the fire was extremely unfortunate, Trellys Y Coed is to be congratulated on their farm fire safety. No untoward chemicals were stored in the barn which meant that only the straw, barn structure and tractor was on fire.

“Access around the entire building was easily achieved due to the farm maintaining clear routes all round which enabled our crews to quickly protect the majority of the structure and ensure no further fire spread”.