A MYSTERY blaze tore through a well-known hotel on the outskirts of Petersfield on Monday. Thousands of pounds of damage were caused as the fire ripped into the extension of the Southdowns Country Hotel, in Trotton. Luckily, no guests were staying in the affected side of the hotel at the time. Fire alarms sounded at the hotel, with staff alerted to smoke seeping from the roof, and a call was made to emergency services at 11.40am with the four members of staff on duty evacuated. West Sussex fire and rescue service said 20 fire appliances and support vehicles were rushed to the scene and it took three hours to quell the flames. Alerted by the alarm, assistant manager of the Dumpford Lane-based hotel Dean Brown-Fuller and head chef Dave Pullen immediately checked to see if any of the bedrooms were occupied. Mr Brown-Fuller said: "The flames were huge. It would make sense if it was in the bedroom, but it was in the loft and we just do not know what caused it. We are totally baffled by it. "Our first instinct was if one of the guests had left an electric heater on in their room, but the cleaners check that. I am one of two live-in staff and we are in the other side of the building, so that was fortunate." The hotel is laid out in two parts, with an original Victorian main building and a modern annexe with leisure facilities. The latter was damaged. The Kingfisher Club leisure complex, which includes a swimming pool and sauna, was "gone", according to a fire service spokesman, and the conference room was badly damaged. Two ground-floor bedrooms were affected by the fire, while eight first-floor bedrooms were "destroyed" in the blaze. Mr Brown-Fuller said there was "a high chance the damaged building might have to come down completely". He expected the repair project to last up to 12 months, with the full extent of the damage unknown. Although the bar and restaurant survived the fire they were initially kept out of bounds in case the roof of the adjoining building collapsed. The bar was eventually passed fit for re-opening, while the fate of the restaurant will be decided by an environmental health inspector. Mr Brown-Fuller said he hoped the restaurant would be back in business for Sunday lunch, but contingency plans to accommodate diners were in place if not. The assistant manager said: "I haven't seen the full extent of the damage, but from the looks of things it is very bad." Hotel guests were transferred to the nearby Spread Eagle in Midhurst, although they had since returned, and bookings had been taken for the weekend, as the old building was intact, as well as the car park facilities. But forthcoming weddings and conferences have been cancelled – a blow to what should have been a busy year for the hotel. "This year was a good year and we were looking forward to it. It's just typical that it's something like this that ruins it for the rest of the year," said Mr Brown-Fuller. With no hydrant supply at the site firefighters had to use water from a nearby stream to douse the flames. The police closed Dumpford Lane as more than 60 firefighters from across Hampshire and West Sussex, including personnel from Petersfield and Liphook, tackled the blaze, with the initial response being increased when the severity of the fire became apparent. A crew from Midhurst arrived to find a severe fire developing in the first floor and roof area of an annexe to the main hotel. As the Hampshire crews arrived, teams with breathing apparatus tackled the main fire while others began a salvage operation to remove furniture. Fire investigation officers are trying to determine how the blaze started.