Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

Calamansack, Port Navas, Constantine, Falmouth at 06/10/2012 09:39

At 09:39 hrs this morning a call was received from a boat in the Helford River stating that they could see a property on fire with smoke coming from its roof near Port Navas. Eleven firefighters in two appliances from Falmouth were mobilised immediately to the incident. Due to difficult access to the premise a further four firefighters in a landrover from Falmouth were mobilised to the premise. A second call from someone on shore and present at the 20 x 6 metre property indicated that the occupants of the premise may have been inside and so the incident was made ‘persons reported’. On crews arrival the premise was heavily smoke logged and showing signs of back draft and flash over fire potential. Fire crews used four breathing apparatus with two main jets whilst carrying out a search and rescue of the ground floor of the property.
The two storey domestic premise measures 6 x 20 metres and is of wood construction, a water carrier was requested to attend from Helson and Wadebridge. Due to location difficulties a local farmer assisted fire crews with accessing the premise and helping to move equipment. At 09:44 a further two appliances from Helston (six firefighters) and Camborne (five firefighters) were mobilised to this incident.
At 11:20 hrs the incident had been sectorised and is using four main jets, two 13.5 metre ladders, one hose reel, two breathing apparatus and a triple extension ladder. Fire services have now made contact with the premise owner and they have confirmed that no one was staying at the premise so it is now believed that no one has been involved in the fire, although this has not been confirmed.

At 12:06 the fire in the premise has spread from the ground floor to the first floor of the property, crews are tackling the fire which is between the ceiling and roof slates and between the first floor and properties external cladding. Crews are continuing to cut away and damp down at this time. Currently it is estimated that 60% of this property has been destroyed.

Incident update 14:10. Fire crews remain on scene in Port Navas damping down and carrying out salvage. Two Fire Investigators are attending the premise to establish the cause of the fire.
This incident is now being scaled down and some fire crews are leaving the scene.

16:30 Five firefighters from Falmouth and three fire investigation Officers remain on the incident ground damping down and investigating the cause of the fire. This fire is believed to have started accidentally.

Update at 2100 hours: All resources have now left the scene. The crew were delayed until this time turning over, damping down and pumping out.