Honington farmer blames Chinese lanterns for the blaze

A farmer who has lost £20,000 worth of hay in a barn fire, has blamed Chinese lanterns for the blaze.

John Rutter, who farms 600 acres near Shipston, was woken at midnight on Friday (5th November) and told one of his barns was alight. He and his wife were asleep at their farm The Clumps in Honington when their nearest neighbour, a quarter-of-a-mile away, raised the alarm.

John said: “They were calling and trying to wake us but we didn’t hear the phone so they had to ring our son, Chris, who came over and managed to rouse us.”

Firefighters from two stations – Stratford and Shipston – were already on the scene when John arrived. But despite crews battling for hours, the barn and 200 tonnes of fodder inside, burned to the ground.

“By the time we got there, there was nothing we could do because it had taken hold so badly,” John said. “The firefighters were fantastic. But because it was full of hay, the heat from the blaze was so intense, there was one moment when we had to all move back,” he added.

The following morning, John found two sky lanterns a short distance from the ruined barn.

“I don’t have proof that the barn was set on fire by Chinese lanterns, but one of them is badly burned so the candle had obviously set fire to the outer,” he said. “In 30 years of farming, I’ve never found one on my land before, but I found two the morning after the fire. It seems too much of a coincidence.”

Sky lanterns, normally made from paper with an opening for a lit candle, can float for up to five miles before landing.

John said: “Someone has launched these incendiary things into the air, not having any regard for the consequences. They probably came over the village of Honington, where there are thatched properties, so it could have landed on one of those and that doesn’t bear thinking about.

“With these Chinese lanterns, there’s the danger of them setting fire to things but also, when they do land, cows and sheep try to eat them which causes problems. It’s air-borne littering.”

John and his son Chris run J Rutter & Son, which specialises in producing hay and straw for equine businesses.

He said: “Hours and hours of hard work went into producing that stock plus the costs incurred doing it. Fortunately, it’s been a good year and we have a lot of stock, so we’ll be able to supply our customers as normal, but I’m cross about this.

The National Farmers’ Union, along with other environmental bodies and fire chiefs, is campaigning for a ban on sky lanterns.

George Bostock, NFU Warwickshire county adviser, said: “People who release sky lanterns don’t realise just how dangerous they can be – they can cause fires on an industrial scale and kill or injure animals.”