A birds of prey centre narrowly avoided destruction after a fire tore through nearby fields, leaving staff fearing they would need to evacuate around 100 birds.
The fire broke out in a field off the Breckinborough Castle Farm Track off the A167 near Thirsk Birds of Prey Centre at around 2pm yesterday afternoon (July 19).
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At its height, nine fire engines were at the scene as firefighters, farmers and even staff from the bird centre were forced to battle against the flames.
Fire crews worked throughout the night to ensure the fire was out safely and dampened down the area for hours afterwards in a bid to prevent break-out blazes.
Kerry Badgery, director at Thirsk Birds of Prey Centre, described the horrendous situation as ‘intense’ as staff were just five minutes away from launching an evacuation.
She said: “We looked up over the other side of what we call the valley and there were plumes of smoke coming from the fields and we could hear the fire roaring.
“Straightaway we called 999 and two members of staff went out to see how close it was to the centre as the wind was blowing it in our direction.
“The wind was fanning the fire and there were gusts of about 30mph driving it on massively.”
Nine fire crews from multiple North Yorkshire stations rushed to the scene and set about drenching the flames with hose jets.
Staff from the bird centre moved a herd of sheep out of harm’s way, helped firefighters beat the flames with paddles and hosed the area down.
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Local farmers also helped, using their tractors to dig trenches in the fields to overturn the soil and stop the fire from spreading across bone-dry stubble and grass.
Kerry said: “The wind and the dry, long grass was making the fire spread, it was pretty crazy, we thought ‘this is happening, it is coming towards us’ and you could hear it roaring.
“It was crazy, it was like something you see in films or in places like Australia but it was actually happening to us.
“It was pretty intense really and we were thinking ‘we’ve got over 100 birds here’ and the only thing that saved us was the wind changing direction.
"If the wind had carried on as it had been, we would have been in a lot more trouble than we were."
Kerry added: “At one point we were literally five minutes away from evacuating all the birds.
“We would have had to box them all up and move them to the front of the centre and look at moving them out completely due to the smoke.
“It wouldn’t have been easy and when I posted about what was happening on Facebook, the amount of people that wanted to help was incredible.”
Thankfully, due to the wind change and the heroic efforts of the firefighters, the farmers and centre staff, the bird of prey centre and all the birds in it remained safe.
A vet was on standby to attend if any of the birds - which include eagles, owls and vultures - were affected by the smoke but all appear to be well today.
Kerry said: “Luckily we were closed to the public yesterday due to the heat, we’re open today but we’re just having a quiet day to make sure that none of the birds are stressed.”
She added: “The firefighters were amazing and they worked through the night to make sure all the nearby areas were safe.
“Thankfully everybody is safe and sound but there is some damage to the crops which is a real shame for the farmers.”
The North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that crews from Richmond, Bedale, Northallerton, Ripon, Harrogate, Leyburn, Colburn, Stokesley and Boroughbridge responded to the fire.
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