Response to fire 'overwhelming', says café owner

A Cornwall café owner has described the response from his local community as "overwhelming" following a fire that destroyed multiple properties.

Shane Perry, owner of The Farriers Café, is now without power after a blaze torched parts of the Barrow Centre on the Mount Edgcumbe estate.

He told the BBC that some people, who lived on the estate in Cremyll, had "lost everything".

In an attempt to raise money for those worst affected, The Farriers Café sold goods to the community with Mr Perry praising their generosity.

He said: "As we've lost power to the café we had lots of stock left over that would have perished so we decided to drop down into the local community and sell it for donations to go towards those who have lost their homes.

"The response for that was overwhelming, people were very generous. In just one hour we managed to raise £600.

"I've had so many messages from local people offering help asking if they could come help clear up, just offering us love and support.

"I love our community, they're amazing."

At its peak, the fire caused about 40 firefighters to be at the scene - check out the pictures on the BBC news app for Cornwall and on our social media

Investigations into the cause of the fire are continuing.

"It's mostly the upstairs area that has been decimated because the fire did start upstairs," said Mr Perry.

"Fire crews demonstrated exceptional bravery, they were on site so quickly.

"They quickly identified which parts of the building they would be able to save and the parts they probably wouldn't be able to save."

Two fundraisers have been created for those worst affected with more than £2,000 raised.

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