The owner of Bristol’s last working farm has described as ‘really weird’ a strange arson attack along her boundary this week.
Police and Avon Fire are investigating the series of fires that were started along the southern boundary of Yew Tree Farm on Bedminster Down on Sunday.
The farm is the last working farm within Bristol’s city boundary, and the fires set along the boundary of the farm are the latest issue for farmer Catherine Withers.
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On Sunday afternoon, Ms Withers and her partner were alerted to a series of fires on the edge of the farm’s land - she spotted her sheep acting strangely and then heard voices at around 4.15pm. She said someone had used an unknown material to start fires in more than six locations along the fence and hedgerows on the southern boundary of her farm on land which drops down from the A38 Bridgwater Road to the South Bristol Link Road.
While her partner tackled several fires along the lane from the main road to her farm, she discovered three fires had been lit along the fence line between a neighbour’s field and a copse closer to her farmhouse. “All along the fence, there were these fires burning. I had to go down to the bottom and through the gate and up the other side of the copse to get to them and I realised that the fire brigade weren’t going to be able to get to this spot quickly,” she said. “I knew I had to try to do something or it would get out of hand. So I took off my coat and started thumping the ground and trying to put them out.
“A few times I thought ‘this is too much for me’, but I did get them out. Meanwhile, the fire brigade had arrived at the lane and were tackling the fires at the top. Whoever did this must have gone along the fence line and onto the lane setting fires as they went at regular intervals. It’s just really, really weird," she said.
“As I was coming out of the house to see what was going on, I heard a ‘pop’ and some voices and it didn’t sound like kids or teenagers or anything. Neither I nor the firefighters could smell petrol there, so it’s a bit of a mystery what the fires actually were, but they were fairly substantial. Somebody clearly put something incendiary down.
“If we hadn’t got to them, they would’ve burned a lot and met up and destroyed a lot of land,” she added. Ms Withers videos of the fires show a series of blazes all along a fence line which separates a pasture field and a copse just south of her farmhouse in an area which is not part of Yew Tree Farm.
The arson attack comes a couple of months after several of Yew Tree Farm’s sheep were savaged by a dog off a lead being walked through the lower part of the farm.
And the farm is currently the subject of an ongoing planning battle. Developer Redrow Homes wants to build 220 new homes on land between the farmhouse and the A38, land which Ms Withers rents and farms, but does not own.
Avon Fire & Rescue Service said they were treating the blazes on Sunday as arson. A spokesperson said two crews from Bedminster Fire Station were called to reports of a fire.
“On arrival, firefighters found three hedgerows well alight,” she said. “Crews used one high pressure hose reel, three aquapacks and grass beaters to extinguish the blaze. The cause of the fire is thought to be deliberate.”
Avon & Somerset police said they began their investigations into the blaze this week. “We'd ask anyone who saw a person or persons acting suspiciously in that area to call 101 and give reference number 5222080584,” a spokesperson said.
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