"They were trying to deal with [the fire] but by that point it was already burning through the roof. Then the gas bottles on the forklift truck started exploding so they withdrew everybody and at that point there was just no stopping it. Diesel tanks burst open and spilled over the yard and took out the machinery, it was just a matter of containing it."
These are the words of father and wood craftsman Scott Blytt Jordens from Bishopston, who described the scenes at his barn and workshop at Cheriton Woods, Gower, on Wednesday, March 8. After Scott had received calls from concerned neighbours who had spotted a fire at his barn, he rushed over to the woodlands as fast as he could.
The 42-year-old arrived at the scene at around 5:30pm and was met by firefighters who were trying to access the barn to put out a fire which had started inside it. What had started off as a "lovely, snowy day" in Swansea, spending time with his son, had soon turned into a nightmare. A bewildered Scott found himself powerlessly watching while his livelihood burned to the ground in front of his eyes. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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"It's pretty desperate really. You are powerless. Physically, I've not been affected quite like that. You just feel like you're going to throw up. I was just a witness to it really, there's not much you can do. [The fire service] tried really hard, but the access was difficult and they just couldn't get enough water so it just turned into containment. We just had to accept at this point that it was completely gone."
Crews from across Swansea rushed to Gower to deal with the large blaze which took more than twelve hours to put out. Firefighters could not access the secured building properly at first and needed to assess where certain hazards were for their own safety, said Scott. But at the time, the businessowner knew that once the fire reached a certain section of his barn, the high value timber which was set to be his income for the next few years would go up in flames.
"It was the perfect fire, you know. [Timber] was all stacked up with lots of air gaps to help it dry but that's exactly how you'd make a fire. Add that to a fresh diesel delivery that week," said Scott.
Firefighters were at the scene until midnight to make sure the blaze was fully extinguished but Scott said that when he went back down to the barn the next day, although it was safe as everything had burned around it, there was one section that was still burning. "Sometimes, I have to pinch myself. Is this happening? Has this happened? You wave in and out of shock and reality but that's how it goes I guess," said Scott, who added that an estimated £250k worth of damage was caused that evening.
After buying a woodland area in the Gower village of Cheriton in 2016, Scott has continued to develop his sustainable business, Dragonfly Creations, from the new base over the past few years. Creating products from native trees grown on the land around them, Scott and his staff worked from the barn which housed raw material, tools and equipment.
Scott, who first came to Swansea in 2000 to study anthropology and fell in love with the local landscape, said his team had built the working barn up over the past couple of years and it was "all new, shiny and exciting".
Scott said he and his team had worked to ensure the long-term care of Cheriton Woods and its wildlife. "My business has always been working with native timber, to have the woodlands and be able to develop that and use wood from the site and build a business out of that has been a dream coming to life," he said.
The barn was the hub of this dream, but sadly all it took was one night for everything Scott and his team had worked so hard for to burn to ash. Working with timber could be a lengthy process, Scott explained, and preparing planks of wood from chopped native trees so they were ready to be made into products could take several years. "We've been doing that for a while and building up stock, unfortunately for it to turn into smoke," he said.
In another harsh blow for the business and Scott's family, the barn and its contents were not insured as his policy had recently run out, and renewing it was on his to-do list for that week. Admitting that admin was one of his "weak points," Scott explained he did not sort it out in time and now he could not do anything about it other than learn from his mistake. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
"You get pretty low if you dwell on the fire and on the loss and what might have caused it. You just get in a really negative 'what if' space," the father-of-two said. "But I'm learning that doesn't get me or anyone else anywhere. So we focus on what we can do and what we've got. We've got our health and each other and we can work with that and the woodlands are still here. What I'm realising more than anything is that community value and support lifts one's spirits."
A fundraiser has been set up by Scott's friends to help raise money and get the business back on its feet. With Scott, his employees and their families needing to rebuild from the ground up and replace twenty years worth of tools lost to the fire, organisers behind the fundraiser hope to highlight the importance of Scott's sustainable work and ensure it continues. The fundraiser has raised over £16k so far and is helping Scott keep the business going while his team plan to work outside under temporary shelters.
"More than anything, that crowdfunder is providing that moral support in knowing that people are behind us," said Scott. "That gives us strength to carry on and actually feel like we can do this, we can rebuild, we can achieve this and we can get through it. That power is really strong.
"It's the power of knowing people care that matters the most at the moment. I mean, obviously money really matters as well. We will work that out, I haven't worked out a strategy yet as I'm still working on getting the temporary workshops ready for the summer."
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