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Worsham Mill in Witney case study

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to a fire at Worsham Mill, Minster Lovell, at 5:26 am on Sunday 18 September 2016. Four fire engines from Burford, Witney and Oxford, attended the scene. 

Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the building and used high pressure hose reels to extinguish the fire and positive pressure fans to ventilate the smoke.

The building was protected by a sprinkler system that activated and contained the fire until the arrival of the fire service. Only one head was needed to control the blaze. Without this automatic water suppression system more of the factory, goods and products would have been destroyed thus leaving the company in a vulnerable state.

Incident commander Nathan Crockford said “the quick thinking of their staff helped to reduce the impact of the fire on the business and the activation of the sprinkler system prevented the fire from spreading to other areas of the site".