A FARM struck by fire was back open for business 24 hours later.

Severe damage was caused to a milking shed at a dairy farm after the building went up in flames.

Emergency services were called to Craig’s Farm Dairy in Osmington on Wednesday, July 27, after a fire broke out in the milk storage area.

More than 30 firefighters were involved in tackling the blaze.

Firefighters from Weymouth, Dorchester, Wareham and water carrier from Bridport rushed to the scene just after midday.

Despite the extensive damage caused by the fire, the dairy farm was still able to reopen the following day whilst it repairs its milking parlour and thanked the fire service for its quick response.

On its social media, Craig's Farm Dairy announced: "We are OPEN. Thank you for your many messages of support.

"We are currently repairing the milking parlour. We are entirely grateful for the fire service and the fact no human or cow was in the parlour at the time of the incident."

Residents in the surrounding area were advised to close windows and doors due to smoke.

A spokesman for Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said that due to live electrics in the roof space, they had to wait for the power company to isolate the local electricity supply so firefighters could tackle the fire.

It prompted a warning it could affect electricity supplies to the surrounding properties.

A spokesman for Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and rescue said: "We were called just after 12pm yesterday with reports of a barn fire in Osmington, just off the A353. Crews from Weymouth, Dorchester, Wareham and water carrier from Bridport attended the incident. Due to live electrics in the roof space, we had to wait for SEB to attend and isolate the local electricity supply so we could tackle the fire.

"The incident involved a building used as a barn and milking shed. Firefighters managed to contain the fire to the front portion of the barn, but this did suffer severe fire damage. The fire was extinguished using main lines and hose reel jets with our stop coming in at 3.13pm.

"A crew from Weymouth remained on scene until just after 4pm monitoring for hotspots and a reinspection was carried out at 8pm using a thermal imaging camera, but no hotspots were found."

Neighbour Flynn Molan said: "Our houses were about 10 metres from the barn and they are all thatched so we were all quite worried. Once the fire brigade arrived we spoke to them to say that embers were drifting from the fire and landing on our roof due to the wind.

"They then started to hose down our roofs to keep them wet so that no embers could light them. This was before they even started fighting the fire due to the electrical hazard in the barn.

"Shortly after that at around 1pm we lost power and this didn’t return until 4.30ish."