Owzat! Rabbit sets Devizes Cricket Club
on fire
By Richard Savill – Daily Telegraph (Filed:
A
rabbit accidentally set alight by a cricket club bonfire had its revenge after
taking refuge under the groundsman's hut, causing a
blaze that damaged £60,000 worth of equipment.
The rabbit jumped out of the bonfire at the 150-year-old Devizes club,
Wilts, with his tail on fire and disappeared beneath the hut.
Eleven
firemen fought the blaze, but were unable to save the equipment inside,
including several mowers.
Richard
Read, the ground committee chairman, said: "A volunteer was burning
branches and poured paraffin over them to get the fire started”.
"Suddenly,
this rabbit shot out, on fire. It must have had paraffin poured over it and
caught fire at the same time”.
"We
ran to see where it had got to but couldn't find it. We can only imagine that
it bolted inside the hut because, shortly afterwards, it started burning. The
fire spread to the whole place in a few minutes and there was no chance of getting
anything out”.
"When
we told the fire brigade how it started it certainly raised a chuckle."
As an
insurance assessor visited the hut yesterday, Mr Read said: "Fortunately,
the roller was out on the pitch, but we lost everything else”.
"The
fine turf mower, the big diesel mower, wheelbarrows, brushes, all the bits and
pieces collected over the years - all gone”.
"We
are appealing to any rich benefactors out there to help replace some of this
equipment."
The
blaze also destroyed the connections to the club's new electronic scoreboard.
Pip
Flowers, the Devizes fire station commander, said he had never heard of such an
incident before and regretted that it had been impossible to save the rabbit.
"It's
very sad for the poor thing," he said.