Police hunt arsonists after devastating fire at farm near Market Harborough caused £40k of damage

The devastating blaze on the farm at Cranoe is feared to have wreaked £40,000 damage – and is the fourth shattering arson attack in the Welland Valley over the last few weeks alone.

Leicestershire Police are now working alongside Northamptonshire Police as they unite to catch the offenders before they strike again on either side of the twin counties’ borderline.

PC Steve Winn, the rural beat officer for the Harborough area, is leading the Leicestershire Police operation – and he suspects the string of fire attacks are all linked.

“We have had a spree of recent arson attacks on straw stacks on farms in the Welland Valley - and we think they must be linked because there are just too many.

“I went to see Northamptonshire Police’s rural crime team as well as the fire service last Wednesday and we will be swapping information and working together to catch the culprits,” said PC Winn.

“These terrible fires pose a massive threat to our local farming community in the Welland Valley.

“They are inflicting huge financial damage as well as causing huge anxiety among farmers.

“This is catastrophic.

“We are doing all we can to catch the people responsible before they target more farmers.”

The latest shocking incident came in the early hours of Saturday morning (October 17).

Four fire crews from Market Harborough, Kibworth, Wigston and Uppingham raced to the scene after the stunned farmer in the hamlet of Cranoe raised the alarm at 3.46am.

Firefighters fought the ferocious mini-inferno with two hose reel jets and were at the farm off Main Street all of Saturday and into Sunday morning damping down.

“I went out there on Saturday morning to talk to the farmer and assess the scene,” said PC Winn, who’s based at Market Harborough.

“The fire caused about £40,000 of damage.

“Straw is in very short supply anyway after a poor harvest.

“It’s absolutely vital to feed livestock during the winter.

“So this continuing threat to our local farmers is about much more than financial loss.”

The attack comes after arsonists struck on Sunday September 27 at Little Oxendon Farm, near Market Harborough.

A devastating blaze ripped through over 500 tonnes of straw at Chris Parker’s Home Farm on Valley Road, Weston by Welland, on Wednesday September 16.

And criminals also destroyed over 1,000 bales of straw on Patricia Walker’s Langton Hall Farm on West Langton Road, West Langton, on Sunday September 13.