Chickens cheat death as coop burns around them
FIVE chickens were caught in the middle of a fire which raged through an allotment plot in Burton.
Incredibly, the chickens managed to survive the blaze by huddling together, their owner Tracy Crump believes.
Mrs Crump, 54, then said she had to pick melted plastic from their feathers after their coop melted around them.
Firefighters were called to the Mona Land C Allotments, off Dallow Street, on Friday night to reports of a fire.
The plotholders believe it was an arson attack after firefighters told them it was started externally from the sheds.
Fire crews stopped the blaze from spreading and only two plots were affected. However, those plot owners, Mrs Crump and Matt Parkes, have been left devastated.
Mrs Crump, whose plot was the worst affected, saw her shed had been burned to the ground, destroying everything inside including gardening tools and sentimental items passed down to her from her father, as well as rosettes and drawings by schoolchildren on the walls.
She said: “I got a phone call from a plotholder. They had gone down and saw Matt’s shed roof was off and then they saw my shed just wasn’t there.
“My main concern was my chickens. I have five and their pen is plastic.
“I have no idea how they survived. They must have been huddled together. I hope they must have been saved by the fire service.
“Everything in my shed has been destroyed by the fire. Lots of sentimental things. We had lots of rosettes on the walls from shows we did, and I work in a school so I had paintings by the schoolchildren on the wall too.”
Mrs Crump has now housed her chickens in temporary accommodation.
Her plot neighbour, Mr Parkes, 45, said he believes it was an arson attack after the fire service told him it had been started externally from the shed.
He said: “A plot holder had come down on Saturday morning and saw the roof of my shed had collapsed, and then he noticed that Tracy’s shed had been burnt to the ground.
“It is just gutting. It is so disappointing. Mine was a manky old shed but it was ours and we had tools inside. Tracy’s was a better quality one and she had lots of sentimental things in there.
“Tracy’s chicken pen is right next to her shed and she had to pull off melted plastic from their feathers.
“We don’t know if it was arson but if it was then it is just mindless. We just have no understanding on why someone would do this. What was the purpose?”