Senior firefighter recalls the night Hermitage Mill burnt down: ‘the biggest fire I've ever seen’

Those are the haunting words of Mansfield resident Bryn Coleman, who led the firefighting operation at Hermitage Mill 12 months ago today.

Area Manager Coleman, Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service head of prevention, protection and fire investigation, was incident commander at the blaze which devastated the 240-year-old, Grade II-listed building.

Mr Coleman, from Forest Town, was on call when the first calls came in, firstly reporting the incident just before 3am and then when the first crew from Mansfield Fire Station arrived on scene.

“The initial commander requested 10 appliances, which is quite unusual,” he explains. “It’s usually four, then six, then 10 appliances as the fire develops.

“I could tell then it was a really well-developed fire, so you’re in a rush straight away.”

Living in nearby Forest Town, having been born and brought up “near King’s Mill Reservoir”, it was a quick dash, under blue lights, to the scene.

“I remember getting near and seeing the night sky totally illuminated by the mill. It was quite a sight.”

From there, Mr Coleman took charge, immediately requesting another 10 appliances and planning the firefighting operation. “We sector it,” he says, explaining how the mill was split into four sides with a commander and four or five appliances on each, all with a specific objective. “That’s very quickly 20 appliances.”

Initial police reports of potentially people being inside heightened the urgency, although it was later found, fortunately, that the building was empty.

“My concern was the building collapse,” he admits, citing not only the risk to firefighters, but also a desire to protect the adjacent Robin Hood railway line, although, thankfully, no services were running at that time.

The 49-year-old explains the need for more water – but “local knowledge” meant wanting to protect the nearby Reed Mill Fishing Pond – led to a request for a high volume water pump, “the nearest one available was from Sheffield”, to help supply water from King’s Mill Reservoir, while aerial ladder platforms were key in fighting the fire “from a high level”.

The firefighting operation was over relatively swiftly – by 9am nearby roads had reopened and the number of crews had been reduced to five – although demolition experts had to quickly be brought in to make the building safe.

“It was a large fire that developed without anyone noticing,” says Mr Coleman. “That is really unusual.

“Normally people can smell smoke, or see a small fire, but this was fully involved when the first crew arrived.”

He puts it down to the time, location – in an industrial area – and the building’s wooden interior.

Describing it as “like a bonfire” inside the mill’s historic stone walls, he says: “We think it was quite a short time to take hold. If you look at its construction, you’ve got a lot of dry timber, lots of areas where fire can develop quickly.

“It was the biggest fire I’ve seen in my 29 years of service, probably the biggest in Mansfield, if you think back to the Parr’s fire in the 1990s,” adding how the recent Savanna Rags blaze only had 16 crews at its height, about 20 firefighters less than Hermitage Mill.