Historic Kingsdon Inn near Somerton destroyed by fire

Glastonbury firefighters, alongside those from Somerton, Martock, Yeovil, Ilminster and Street were in attendance yesterday at a major thatched roof fire at the 300 year old Kingsdon Inn at Kilmersdon near Somerton.

At 11.30am Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service received numerous 999 calls to the fire and dispatched an initial 8 engines to deal with the blaze.  The 300 year-old thatched roof was well ablaze by the time the first crews arrived.

A Fire Service spokesman said: "The fire could be seen in the distance before the first crews arrived on scene. On arrival crews confirmed the thatched roof was well alight and begun extinguishing with two hose reel jets”.

However due to the severity of the blaze extra firefighters were subsequently mobilised with another four engines coming from Yeovil, Crewkerne, Castle Cary and Wincanton along with further incident support units from Taunton and Yeovil.  Western Power also attended to ensure electricity supplies were safe.

Roads in the vicinity were closed by the Highways Agency, and it is anticipated  that they will remain so for the next 3 to 4 days.

It's still not known exactly how a fire took hold so quickly to completely destroy the roof of the historic thatched pub and fire investigators are still searching through the remains