Surrey Fire and Rescue Service
Copthorne house blaze destroys derelict property and leaves just 'outer shell' of building
Three pumps stayed at the property in Herons Close on the Domewood estate overnight as investigations into the cause of the fire continue
Amani Hughes
A massive fire has destroyed a derelict house on an estate in Copthorne and has left just the "outer shell of the building."
Crews from across Surrey and Sussex were called to the house fire at around 3.30pm on Thursday afternoon (November 3) in Herons Close on the New Domewood estate in Copthorne, near Horley .
Six fire engines from Salfords , Banstead , Godstone , west Sussex and Crawley were sent to the scene where they were met with a "fully developed house fire".
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The alarm was raised when a neighbour went down to investigate what they initially believed to be a bonfire and discovered the huge blaze.
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The roof of the two-storey building had begun to collapse when crews arrived on the scene and the roof of a large single storey building attached to the house had partially collapsed.
"The two storey building was fully developed in fire, the roof had started to collapse as they arrived so it was beyond saving," assistant group commander Karen Pointer said.
"There are still hot spots on it and it has been deemed unsafe to enter by structural engineers so we cannot work within the property.
"We have ground monitors in place as the ground surrounding the property is very overgrown. It is a derelict property, we are trying to minimise the risk overnight to our firefighters."
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Investigations into the cause of the fire remain ongoing (Image: UK News in Pictures)
Assistant group commander Pointer said the first crew could not confirm whether there were people in the building.
"We are pretty sure there is no one in there, but we will make investigations in the morning, once they [investigation teams] come back to reassess in daylight hours," she said.
"We do not think it was occupied but that is part of the investigation."
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She explained the property is "70% damaged by fire" and the roof of the property has now completely collapsed.
"At the moment it is just the outer shell of the building, all the internal structures have collapsed, they have all collapsed on the first floor."
Firefighters from across Surrey and Sussex were sent to the scene (Image: UK News in Pictures)
Kate Holland, 37, and daughter Hope, 10, also live on the Domewood estate and Hope explained what she saw after being drive to the scene by her grandmother.
"There were about five fire trucks, two police cars and quite a lot of ambulances just in case there was anybody hurt, there are no injuries that we know of. By the time I got there, the fire was out but we saw lots of cars," Hope said.
"It's quite a long driveway [up to the house], we live quite far down from it, but we could smell it from quite a long way, it was quite bad when you opened the door.
"We could see lots of firefighters and lots of water on the ground."
"It makes me sad, the land that the house is on is just beautiful, and it has just been left, now it's been burnt," Kate added.
Three pumps will stay at the scene overnight and fire investigations are ongoing into the cause of the fire.
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