Burning sofa found at centre of field fire

Friday 14 September 2018

Guernsey Fire and Rescue Service were called to a blaze near the Bridge on Thursday evening, where they found a sofa on fire in the middle of a field.

The flames had spread and could be seen above trees near a housing estate with crowds of people gathering to watch what was going on, alerted by the smoke and falling ash.

The first calls to 999 were made at 19:04 with some of those eye witnesses from nearby houses alerting the emergency services.

The Fire and Rescue Service were on the scene within 12 minutes, where they found an area of vegetation on Tetre Lane in the Vale well alight. A spokesman for the service said an area of field and scrubland, approximately 40m by 60m was burning when the two fire appliances arrived at the scene.

As the fire crews worked at putting the blaze out, they found a burning sofa, and potentially other furniture within the fire. That had spread to trees and other plants and vegetation.

Above: Paul Ozanne shared this video with Express 

The flames could be seen from the Northern end of the Bridge and the junction of Braye Road and Summerfield Road. 

It took firefighters just over an hour to bring the flames under control and to make the area safe.

Pictured: Zoe Richards captured this image from a nearby residential area. She said, "a lot of ash rained down. The kids asked if it was snowing!"

Guernsey Police said an investigation is underway.

"An officer attended a fire last night in a field in Tertre Lane, Vale, where a large area of scrubland was on fire.

"We are liaising with colleagues in the Fire Service to determine the cause of the fire. At this stage we are treating it as deliberate and enquiries are ongoing."