East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was called to the agricultural building fire in Ailies Lane, East Hoathly, at 11.54pm on Tuesday, May 5.
Initially, four appliances were mobilised to the incident and at 12.26am the incident was escalated to six appliances, with the fire control room receiving more than 60 repeat calls from the public informing them of the fire. Residents across East Sussex reported hearing explosions.
Ground monitors were set up by firefighters to tackle the fire and deliver high-volume water efficiently.
At 12.39, fire service personnel were evacuated to 200 metres from the site of the fire, due to the explosion of cylinders. The Incident Command Unit was in attendance.
Three barns were “essentially destroyed” by fire from exploding cylinders. The incident was left as a controlled burn, which was monitored by a remaining crew at the scene overnight, outside the 200m exclusion zone.
All persons have been accounted for, a spokeswoman for the fire service confirmed.
By 9am on Wednesday morning, the cylinders had cooled and crews were turning over and damping down to ensure pockets of fire were fully out and to make sure the area was safe.
A spokeswoman for the fire service added: “A fire investigation will take place in the coming days to understand the cause of the fire and gain any learning for the future.”
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