Arson fear at farm fire

The blaze took hold at Forge Mill Farm in West Bromwich late on Saturday night and raged into the early hours of yesterday. It comes less than six months after arsonists struck a cowshed and a nearby barn injuring around a dozen calves.

However, no animals were injured in the latest incident to hit the attraction, which is also a working dairy farm.

Firefighters from across the Black Country and Birmingham were called to the blaze at around 11.20pm on Saturday and a handful remained damping down with water pumped from the nearby River Tame until well into yesterday afternoon.

Watch Commander Adrian Cherry, of Wednesbury Fire Station, said the cause of the blaze was suspicious.

"The bales of hay were stacked three high, and there were about 180 of them, each of which weighs about three-quarters of a ton," he said.

"Once something like a haystack starts burning, there's nothing that you can do except put a lot of water on it and truly damp it down."

March's fire at the farm saw a similar quantity of huge circular bales of hay destroyed, costing bosses at the Sandwell Valley attraction around £3,500.

Michael Freeman, senior countryside officer with farm owners Sandwell Council, said that the destroyed hay and silage were winter feed for the farm animals.

"The initial view seems to be that it is arson, but an investigation will be required to confirm an exact cause," he said.

"We've got to get the straw and silage replaced and with the weather that there has been this summer, it will be costly."

However, Mr Freeman said that unlike in March when the weather was colder, animals were out in the fields on Saturday night and a safe distance away from the fire.

As well as crews from Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Smethwick, Handsworth, and Cradley Heath firefighters also attended the blaze.