A FAMILY that runs its own Christmas tree farm was shocked when members woke up in the early hours of the morning to discover part of their house was going up in flames.

Martin Lock, who lives on Holmes Farm with his parents, Gordon and Doreen, was the first to realise the barn attached to the family home was on fire last Wednesday (March 21).

Martin woke up at his home in Bishopswood Road, Buckland St Mary, shortly before 5am to the sound of burning wood crackling and the smell of smoke.

He said: “I am in the bedroom on the end, next to where the fire was.

“When we first looked the roof was there, and then we were rushing to move things out of the house in case the fire spread, and then we came back 20 minutes later and it had gone down.”

After the Locks made a call to the fire service, three fire engines were rushed out to the scene to battle the flames and try and stop it spreading into the main part of the house.

They tackled the blaze for five hours, and while flames licked the outside wall of Martin’s bedroom, the fire crews were able to stop it spreading.

Martin added: “We weren’t really looking at the clock, we were more just thinking ‘what are we going to do now?’ that sort of thing really.

“They are not certain of the cause of the fire, it might have been electrical.

“The building was mainly storage space. Everything that was in there is totally destroyed.

“We are just waiting for the structural engineers to tell us if the building is safe.

“The whole house is without electricity at the moment because the mains was in there, but we do have a generator.”

Chard & Ilminster News:

Fortunately, the fire has not caused any significant damage to the Lock family’s house or to the day to day running of the business, which last year sold around 5,000 Christmas trees.

A spokesman for Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said it was called out by the family shortly before 5am and when fire crews arrived on the scene, the barn adjoining their home was ‘well alight’.

“Three fire appliances from Chard and Honiton, plus a water carrier from Bridgwater, were immediately mobilised,” he added.

“After further calls were received from neighbouring properties and whilst the attending appliances were still proceeding to the incident, fire control made the decision to mobilise an additional pumping appliance from Ilminster to support them.

“At 5.30am, the incident commander confirmed that a two-storey agricultural store with a slate roof was well alight.

“The fire was beginning to spread to an adjoining two-storey farm cottage that had solar panels on its roof.

“Two breathing apparatus-wearers were committed to the roof space of the cottage to monitor and prevent the fire spreading to the domestic dwelling.”

Two more fire engines were then called from Axminster and Honiton, and fire crews were able to stop the fire spreading to the house.

The scene was scaled down to three fire engines shortly before 7.30am, before crew finally confirmed at 9am that the building had been completely destroyed by the fire and the cause of the incident was accidental.

Despite the severe damage to the barn building and smoke damage to an adjoining barn, Martin is remaining optimistic.

He said: “The house is OK and the business is all right and these things just sort of put themselves back together in time, don’t they?”