FIRE DEVASTATES DEALERSHIP

The Bedford dealership, MKM Agri who specialise in utility vehicles, have suffered a fire that has completely destroyed their workshop, storage building and all of the contents.

It broke out at 4.13am on Wednesday 7th April, with CCTV footage showing the first signs of the fire in the dealership's workshop - which was locked and alarmed - at Marston Moreteyne, Bedford.

Local residents sounded the alarm after an explosion at 4.22am, with owner Anthony Deacon arriving on the scene a few minutes later. Bedfordshire Fire Service arrived three minutes behind him.

Anthony says the fire rapidly spread through the workshop and across the adjoining machinery storage building. The fire service had little chance of extinguishing the fire, he says, and concentrated their efforts on containing the spread onto nearby buildings.

The fire completely destroyed the building and over 70 machines including 35 ATVs, 6 UTVs a forklift, many lawn mowers and over 35 years’ worth of tools.

A full investigation into the cause of the fire has been completed by a forensic team and the cause remains unknown. However, thanks to the CCTV they do know it was an accident with the fire starting inside a locked and alarmed building.

Anthony Deacon told TurfPro, "The last few days have been the most difficult of my working career and we have a long way to go to full recovery.

"I have spent most of my time since the fire in talks with insurers. It’s still early days but we are working with Allianz, to resolve the situation as effectively as possible."

Anthony continued, "On behalf of Mark and myself we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has offered their help and support over the last few days. We would like to thank our customers who have lost their machines in the fire for their understanding. We are doing everything we can to work with our insurers to resolve the situation as quickly as possible on a machine by machine basis.

"We would like to thank the whole MKM team for their professional conduct and the manner in which they have handled this extremely difficult situation.

"We have a long road ahead to full recovery but rest assured we are still here and still open albeit operating under restricted conditions. We will rebuild and continue to offer the fantastic service we have become known for."