The River Cottage Before The Fire

A fire has severely damaged the premises of celebrity chef Hugh Whittingstall’s River Cottage Park Farm.

The blaze, which is believed to have happened just after 22:00 on Tuesday (7/2/12) has left the premises “severely damaged” and the team that work there are “shocked and upset”.

Emergency services went to the scene after the single storey building caught fire with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue reporting that 8 fire engines and 80 firefighters attended the fire in response to the commercial kitchen fire 999 call. They went on to report that the fire was under control after around 3 hours and no members of the public or rescue services were injured.

A River Cottage spokesperson made the following statement: “Late last night a serious fire severely damaged the main barn at River Cottage Park Farm headquarters in Axminster. Thankfully, no people, or animals, were hurt. The River Cottage team are dealing with the damage today and are shocked and upset. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is away on a long-distance filming trip and will be informed as soon as he can be contacted."

The spokesperson went on to say: “The River Cottage Canteen and Deli at Axminster was unaffected and is open. But the cookery school courses at Park Farm will not be running in the short term. Anyone booked on a course will be contacted by the River Cottage events team as soon as possible," a spokesman said.”

Wednesday February 8^th 2012
The Onlines