Eight preserved vehicles – seven buses and one coach – have been destroyed by fire in a unit occupied by the Friends of King Alfred Buses (FoKAB) group on a farm near Andover.
The blaze broke out early on 8 December. It is thought to have begun elsewhere in the complex before spreading. FoKAB has used the unit at the farm for many years to park and store vehicles. One member of the charity’s fleet was destroyed along with seven more owned by members and other preservationists.
The FoKAB vehicle that perished was a 1950 Leyland Olympic. It was Hampshire’s first underfloor-engined bus, and was returned from Ireland and then restored by the group for many years before making its debut in 2012.
Such was the severity of the fire, the heavily-damaged Olympic (pictured, right), is described by FoKAB Secretary and Trustee David Morgan as “the only bus to remain even partly recognisable in the tangled wreckage.”
Mr Morgan adds that the other seven vehicles involved “have, very sadly, been reduced to little more than ash.” Those included four former Hants and Dorset buses and a Volvo B10M coach. One had been subject to 15 years’ restoration work by a FoKAB member. “All are almost certainly beyond recovery,” he continues.
FoKAB Chair James Freeman adds that the fire is “an appalling disaster” and that it “only underlines the important of FoKAB’s never-ending quest to find a long-term safe home for its collection.”
Adds Mr Freeman: “The fire appears to have started elsewhere in another unit, and was well alight by 0130hrs. By the time I arrived on site, there was little but the walls and roof structure [remaining].
“The intensity of the fire was such that people living several miles away were woken by exploding fuel tanks and the like. Fire crews attended from across Hampshire and from Wiltshire.
“While it is fortunate that nobody was hurt, we must now come to terms with the loss of so many valuable, irreplaceable coaches and buses. We send out heartfelt sympathies to the owners who have lost their prized vehicles.”
