'Nine whole years burnt to the ground'
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Services said that they received the call at 10.25pm with crews from Welshpool, Montgomery, Llanfair Caereinion, Llanfyllin, Newtown and Presteigne Fire Stations, assisted by crews from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.
The fire was brought under control in the early hours and by sunlight business owners were arriving to assess the damage.
One, The Furniture Farm, posted on its Facebook page: “Devastated, heartbroken, upset. I don’t think any words can describe what I’m feeling right now. Nine whole years of building The Furniture Farm. Nine whole years of tools and stock all taken away and burnt to the ground.”
The fire service updated this afternoon to say that crews responded to a fire within a single-storey industrial building consisting of seven commercial units.
They utilised three main jets, seven breathing apparatus sets, four hose reel jets, small tools, thermal imaging cameras and two ground monitors to extinguish the fire.
Four of the commercial units were damaged by the fire and three units were damaged by smoke and heat. Crews left the scene at 11.03am this morning.
Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust said their reserve near by was still open but urged visitors to postpone their trip.
“If you were planning on visiting our #SevernFarmPond today or tomorrow, we'd advise postponing for H&S reasons," they said. "While the reserve itself is fortunately not affected by the fire, its car park is currently inaccessible, and the industrial estate is busy with fire station crews.”
A fire investigation team has remained on site most of the day to carry out its preliminary investigations as to what caused the blaze, with readers claiming to have heard a huge bang at around 10pm last night.
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