THAME fire officers, including Station Commander, Andy Ford, were among 100 of their colleagues from neghbouring towns, involved in trying to save the thatched, luxury home of a TV soap star.
Hollyoaks beauty, Ali Bastian, apparently watched in horror as fire ripped through her father’s riverside home near Henley-on-Thames.
The TV star, who plays a teacher in the Channel 4 series, apparently arrived just minutes after the blaze broke out during a dinner party at the property last Saturday night.
Andy Ford admitted that he would not have recognised the star, had he seen her, although some of his colleagues were aware that she was there.
“As with most thatch fires,” Andy explained,”this one was basically a damage-limitation excercise, trying to prevent the fire from spreading and burning bits of thatch dropping into the rooms below and igniting new fires. We were there most of night salvaging as much as we could from the house.”
Because of fire crews’ massive efforts, at one point using five portable pumps to pump water out of the river Thames, the roof and top floor of the 1920’s house were destroyed but the lower part of the property was saved.
Photo: Courtesy of the BBC.
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