Budgen’s store fights back after Christmas Day fire

By Liz Wells in Industry News 8th January 2021

The Budgen’s store at Daff-Y-Nant service station, Whitchurch in Ross-On-Wye, is working to reopen after it lost most of its stock to a fire on Christmas Day.

Credit: Phil Major

Seven fire crews worked for nine hours to bring the fire under control at the Applegreen-branded service station off the A40 in Whitchurch, reports suggest.

Regional Herefordshire and Worcestershire Fire and Rescue Service chief, Phil Major, tweeted: “Can you believe it, a petrol station fire tonight? Crews from across Herefordshire tackling the blaze brought under control in the early hours of Xmas Day.

“Great actions from the initial crews to get in and stop the fire spreading to the fuel tanks. Brave and decisive actions.”

In addition, a company spokesperson told the Ross Gazette: “We have no idea what caused it at the moment, but 99.9% of the stock, such as meat and food, has been lost to fire, smoke and water damage.

“We only opened on Valentine’s Day and it’s very disappointing, but we aim to get it open again as soon as possible.

“Although there wasn’t a real risk of it spreading to the pumps, the firemen did a brilliant job.”

An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.