AN accidental fuel spillage led to a destructive fire at timber merchant, Harvest Wood Products on Grange Rd, Tilford, on Monday morning.

The fire was reported to authorities around 7am after it was spotted by a passer-by, and the fire brigade were on the scene approximately 15 minutes later.

The building is completely gutted and will need to be rebuilt from scratch at a cost of around £150,000. There were no injuries and the business intended to be back up and running within 24-hours.

The owner. Lance Trevellyan, said: “My primary concern was to make sure no-one was injured. The fire brigade believe the blaze had started about an hour before they got there, by judging how far the fire had progressed.

“My first concern was for the safety of my staff and any by-standers who had come to watch the fire and to make sure that they were well away. The fire brigade have been excellent and they dealt as you can imagine very professionally with all of those risks. Absolutely brilliant.

“We are currently intending to reopen the business within 24-hours and we look forward to serving our customers, shortly thereafter. We are getting another temporary building brought in from another part of the estate.”

Surrey Police assisted with traffic management after they were called in by the fire service at around 7.30am. The main building was well alight and the roof collapsed as they arrived at the business on Greenhill Estate.

A spokesperson for Surrey Fire and Rescue, said: “We were called in at 7.12am and sent over three fire engines, two specialist vehicles and a fire investigation dog. The building was already alight and it took just under two hours to put out. The building used as retail space, was completely destroyed and damaged by the fire.

“The cause was down to a fuel spillage, it was an accident.”