Fire rips through farm amid fury at hosepipe ban in soaring temperatures

This is the moment a fire engulfing a farm cannot be put out because of the lack of water amid soaring temperatures.

Donia Youssef, 45, shared videos on Facebook at her parent’s farm in Rotherfield, East Sussex showing the roof ablaze.

It comes as South East Water has announced a hosepipe ban to come into force for Kent and Sussex from June 26.

Bosses say it’s because of the record demand for drinking water.

Areas of the region have been left with little or no water this week amid the hot weather, forcing schools to shut down and residents to get drinking water from bottled water stations.

A plea to use only essential water has stretched from Haywards Heath in West Sussex to Whitstable in Kent.

On Facebook, Donia wrote: “Over the last 5 days, my parents have been battling the summer heat with no water while tending to our farm animals.

“Last night the challenge escalated when our family home caught fire, creating a scene ironically void of water to extinguish it.

“Thanks to the firefighter’s swift actions, the fire was quelled and all is safe now. But the pressing need for the water supply to be restored is more critical than ever.

“I urge the water company South East Water to act swiftly – our farming community depends on it. Here’s to my parents’ resilience and the support rural areas desperately need.”

An East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said: “We were called at 7.58pm to Rotherfield to reports of a fire.

“Crews from Crowborough, Heathfield and Uckfield used one hose reel jet to extinguish the fire. No casualties were reported.”

The service added that its engines can “carry a great deal of water” and that its crews had “increased the number of appliances turning out to fires in the areas that are currently without water, providing an extra tank of water to any incident”.

The Mirror contacted South East Water for comment.

It comes as a farmer with 40 cattle and heifers about to give birth is “hysterical” due to the water shortages in an East Sussex area, a councillor has said.

Wealden District councillor Michael Lunn expressed anger at the “crazy situation” in the rural area hit by the lack of water and had spoken to around 20 farmers affected by the drop in supply from South East Water.

Mr Lunn also described how another farm owner with 20 horses also has no water provision.

“It’s really serious,” he said, adding: “As far as I’m concerned, they (South East Water) are just so, so slow in responding to this crisis.

“We were aware this was going to happen… we are not shocked or surprised, we are disappointed and we are really angry.”

Mr Lunn, a farmer himself, also rejected South East Water “in effect blaming residents” over their water usage but instead believes the water company is underinvesting in its infrastructure.

He added that in communications with South East Water, the crisis will not be resolved until “at least Sunday”.

South East Water said despite providing an extra 120 million litres of water a day, demand in June has broken records, including from the Covid lockdown heatwave.

David Hinton, the firm’s chief executive, said: “This situation has developed much more rapidly than last year. Understandably, we’ve seen customer demand increase in line with the hotter weather, however, this has impacted our ability to keep all customers in supply at all times.

“Despite asking for customers’ help to use water for essential uses only, regrettably we’ve now been left with no choice but to introduce this temporary use ban restriction to protect customers’ supplies across Kent and Sussex.”

Mr Hinton said the long-term forecast for the summer is a dry period with little rainfall, adding: “Restricting the use of hosepipes and sprinklers to make sure we have enough water for our customers’ essential use will ensure we can serve our vulnerable customers and to protect the local environment.”

On Friday, three schools in East Sussex partially closed due to water shortages.

Mark Cross Church of England Primary School in Crowborough said it could not open to all-year groups because of reduced sanitary facilities and no running water.

Wealden MP Nusrat Ghani has been calling on South East Water to introduce a hosepipe ban since earlier this week, blasting the company for “appalling” outages across her East Sussex constituency.

“Today is day six of misery and we’re still counting. It’s always too hot or too cold for @sewateruk to cope with demand in Wealden. We have been here before and lessons are never learnt,” she tweeted on Friday before the hosepipe ban was announced.

Southern Water which supplies areas of Kent also issued a warning on Thursday that demand for water in the county was “outstripping supply” as the spell of hot and dry weather continues.

On Friday the firm said customers in Fairlight and Hastings were experiencing low or no water pressure and it had set up a bottled water station.

The provider said demand is 15 per cent higher than expected for this time of year, and that this week has been the highest level of use by Kent homes and businesses since last summer’s heatwave.