UPDATED: Hundreds of bales of hay catch fire in barn in Inkberrow

Farmer Andrew Neal, whose family owns Little Mearse Farm in Inkberrow, has spoken of his “shock” at the ferocious blaze, which broke out late on Monday morning and continued to smoulder throughout yesterday (Tuesday).

After being alerted by his mother, who called the fire service, Mr Neal ran round to the barn and found 400 of bales and the large barn well alight.

He said: “My mother rang me up and said: ‘Have you got a fire?’ I said: ‘No’, I was pressure washing.

"I came and had a look and it was on fire. It is just something you do not expect.”

He said his first reaction to seeing the structure ablaze was “disbelief”.

Firefighters from Redditch and Evesham rushed to tackle the fire and remained on scene throughout the day and overnight..

A crew from Droitwich was on site all day yesterday, to ensure the smouldering hay remained under control and did not reignite.

“I was in total shock yesterday,” added Mr Neal, who does not know how the fire started. “I was impressed with the way that the fire brigade came and just did it all. They did a very good job.”

The bales, which were left over from last summer, were stacked to the roof of the barn but have now been almost burned to the ground.

The barn has been completely destroyed and will have to be demolished and replaced. Luckily, an adjacent barn was not damaged by the fire. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Mr Neal said the hay making season has just started and the destroyed bales will be replaced.

He explained: “Farmers are notorious for just getting by - we will get by. It is a problem but it is not a problem. It is just one of those things.

“As far as I’m concerned I can take more hay and more silage and store it in other barns.

“We make our own hay, we are lucky that because it was a mild winter last year we have had hay left over. We thought we were going to have some more surplus but that has all gone.

“Nobody knows how it started."