Owner watches dog kennel and shed destroyed by fire

Emergency services were called to the fire in Coltsfoot Road, Chantry just before 7.55pm yesterday, Monday March 21.

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Home owner Paul Lowther said the fire spread to his dog’s kennel, but luckily Marmite wasn’t inside at the time.

Mr Lowther said: ‘About 7.30pm last night we heard loud knocking at my front door and at my windows and so I obviously went to our main door and my neighbor said ‘Paul, your shed is alight “.

“I ran out the back and saw 50 foot flames at the top of my yard.

“I obviously panicked and tried to do what I could do with the garden hose, but by this point the fire had spread to the fences and the kennel.”

Mr Lowther said French bulldog Marmite, which usually lives outdoors, was brought inside last night and “luckily” was unharmed.

“My dog ​​could have been in the kennel,” Mr Lowther said.

“Luckily she was there last night.”

The owner said he and several neighbors tried to do everything they could to put out the fire.

He said they used their own garden hoses to fight the blaze, but it was “just too big”.

“It was full of gardening equipment and tools,” Lowther added.

He recalls: “It was jam-packed with bicycles, garden furniture and children’s toys.

“I rearranged my whole garden and obviously all the tools I used to make disappeared.

“It’s devastating. Just devastating.”

Mr Lowther thanked the fast-acting emergency services who fought the fire at his home.

A Suffolk Police spokesman said an investigation into the cause of the fire had been opened.

A spokesman for the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said: “Crews were called into a wooden shed approximately 6m x 3m and 10m of fence well lit.

“Two reels, two breathing apparatus and a thermal camera were used.”

June Phair, who saw the fire, said she quickly alerted the emergency services to the blaze.